Heu{s-k}ach . Un

«d’incise, our usual suspect when it comes to freejazz, teamed up with Marcel Chagrin (guitar, bass drum) and the Heu{s-k}ach project was born. This is ultimately a live only project, so all the recordings you’ll find here were taken from live gigs. And believe me, you can never be so minimal as this. Effects and guitar effects. Nothing more.

‘Un’ marks a new direction for d’incise’s musical projects. Freejazz as the starting point but with total experimentation as the language underneath. You can never have too many layers of sound, I guess. Absolutely awesome if you’re into experimental freejazz and beyond.

More info about the project here.» – Pedro Leitão

«The album starts with sounds of crushing objects, cymbals and tones of an electric guitar. “Deux” is more quiet and the drony guitar sounds are supported by electronic sounds and bells or something like Tibitan singing bowls. The stringsounds roll closely with the ongoing sounds of these instruments. “Trois” builds up very slowly and the alternation of warm bellsounds and harsh electronics fits really well and moves into a restless noisy end. The last track “Quatre” ends also with a great diversity of sounds and atmospheres created by for example slide guitar, high bell tones. “Un” is the first CD of this new project of the free-minded d’incise. I like the calm atmosphere which he created with Marcel Chargin and the exploration of the most intense combination of soundwaves and rhythms.»
- JKH/Vital Weekly / August 2010

→ Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Project : N.A. (Insomnia/Abyss II)

«psq M.O.S. is the pseudonym of a polish musician who for the first time presents his work here at test tube, under the alias ‘Project : N.A.’.

The two tracker ‘Insomnia/Abyss II’ invests greatly in deep and dark ambient over the course of its nearly 23 minutes. ‘Insomnia’ is more into the ‘dark side’ of sleeping disorders, or at least the first half is, while ‘Abyss II’ – as the name suggests – has a more deep and submersive character, I mean, most of it sounds like field recordings taken from the undercurrents of the ocean bed. The last part of this track, on the other hand, sounds like as if the submarine trip ended up in another world or another dimension.

Great stuff to listen to in the comfort of the night with a nice pair of headphones while watching underwater life documentaries.» – Pedro Leitão

→ Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

A. Brandal + F. Barabino . Untitled

«’Untitled’ is the first collaborative work between norwegian Andreas Brandal and argentinian Federico Barabino. Brandal on electronics and Barabino on prepared electric guitar. Both of them have a vast background of working with improvised music, which is precisely what you will listen to in this work.
All audio material was recorded between October 2008 and January 2009, and consists on 10 tracks of Brandal’s manipulation techniques using various electronic tools, both analogue and digital, over several improvised guitar pieces taped by Barabino in Buenos Aires.

All the pieces have numbers as titles, which have no particular meaning, as they all are random attempts at eviscerating guitar samples, through drone, glitch and noise manipulation.
You’ll find pretty much sonic chaos here, but it’s lovely chaos in all its glory.»
- Pedro Leitão

→ Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

a million billion : cavity care

A Million Billion is Ryan Smith based out of Queens, NYC. ‘Cavity Care’ is a collection of compositions that Ryan wrote in collaboration with several choreographers over the last 6 years.
These works are distinctively experimental in nature (especially the first four pieces), but also extremely dramatic and cinematographic in tone, and as a result most of the time they transport us to movie-like settings and places.
To me, the real keeper is ‘Kettering and Corby’. That one really hits the spot here, with a blend of domesticated sinewaves and sci-fi guitar playing-like (hello Cliff Martinez!) nostalgia momentum. Ryan hit the jackpot right here.»
- Pedro Leitão

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Bogdan Dullsky : DREAMING IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP

«Famous russian experimentalist Bogdan Dullsky – responsible for the Quest Room Project – returns to test tube with a mixed-media release, to much of my own pleasure as I’m a big fan of his work. For this ‘Freedom Reflex | Second’ he invited some friends to collaborate, namely Barandash (the visual artist who created the amazing images that accompany this work); Nikita Golyshev (founder and curator of netlabel Musica Excentrica and musician) on samplers and synthesizers; Olliver Wichman (founder and curator of netlabel Petcord and musician) on piano, and also Ray Kondrashov on acoustic and midi percussions.

On this follow-up of a previous work, Bogdan and friends create a fantastic work of various levels in complexity, rendering the listener numb and dazzled. ‘Freedom Reflex | Second’ is, simply put, an audio-visual materialization of what life could have been in a concentration camp (one like KZ Mauthausen). Life on the edge, full of horrors, misfortune, sadness and agony, but also a life. What is life when you know it will eventually end, sooner than you think? What if you had to enjoy in the best possible way even knowing you would be eventually tortured and executed? What would fill your mind? What kind of pleasure would you try to take from those moments? What would you dream? Would you dream about Death? Despair? Freedom?

There are many answers to these questions. One possible answer is in ‘Freedom Reflex | Second’. Listen to it, and watch the images closely» – Pedro Leitão

«One year ago I had a terrible dream. Both simultaneously grandiose and beautiful. The whole year I have spent attempting to reproduce landscapes of the spiritual world behind the looking glass, in a sound…

Perhaps. Which that was possible. You check up…

It would be desirable that we have stayed near to prisoners of concentration camp Mauthausen and other camps of death. In what time and in what place they would not be… Can not listen to this album… Simply pray for, that some things. Never repeated… Though… What am I to speak for it? It will repeat again and again… I have impudence pretentiously to trust in a good victory

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

David Vélez : 20:51

«’20:51′ is the first release in a new series here at test tube. David challenged me several months ago in doing some kind of book release, and then I though to myself: ‘why not starting a new mixed-media series of work?’. The idea started to materialize slowly and now we proudly present this new work from David Vélez.
In the future, expect a different kind of mixed-media works: text and audio, video and text, audio and video, audio and photo, etc. We want that artists feel completely free in aesthetics and form. This is their naked canvas here at test tube.» – Pedro Leitão

«’20:51′ is a publication composed of 1) a series of photographs I took and put together as a PDF publication, and 2) a sound piece titled ‘Polvo’. This is the first sound work I finish and publish in almost 9 months, a period where I looked around for inspiration and slowed down.
The word ‘Polvo’ in spanish means ‘Dust’ but also refers to the sexual act of reproduction: the origin of this meaning is unclear.

Celebrities like Woddy Allen, God, John Lennon, David Bowie and even Pablo Picasso have used the word ‘Polvo’/'Dust’ on their creations and/or on their quotes and titles.

“…quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris… “.

(“…for dust you are, and to dust shall you return…”).

…is a quote taken from Genesis 3:19 in the Bible. Some intellectuals claim that this Bible quote is the origin of the use of the word ‘Polvo’ to refer to the sexual act.
The cyclic and finite/infinite notion that are found on the use of the word ‘Polvo’ are quite inspiring and probably influenced the way the piece sounds and feels, since the title ‘Polvo’ was assigned to the piece before I composed it.
Dust was here before us, dust will remain here after us. That fact makes everything else simple, ephemeral and harmless.

There is not a manifest connection between the piece and the photos.»
- David Vélez

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Diatribes + Paulo Curado + Joao Pedro Viegas : Travessia dos Respigadores

«A Respigador – possible english translation: Harvester – is usually the person who drives or operates the machine with the same name. A harvesting machine used to harvest wheat and other cereals from the fields. So, the title of this new collaboration work between swiss musicians Laurent Peter (a.k.a. d’incise) and Cyril Bondi – both known as Diatribes – and Paulo Curado and João Pedro Viegas (two local jazz musicians and improvisators) is about the travessia (crossover) of some respigadores. Crossing over what? And who are these respigadores and where are they going to (and coming from)?
Perhaps they are Laurent and Cyril, because respigadores are also the people that scavenge stuff that others don’t want anymore, turning them into usable objects, like perhaps sound-producing objects, musical objects. Diatribes use them frequently in their albums and live performances, granting the music they make something that goes beyond human performance and instrument manipulation, musically speaking.

In its core, ‘Travessia dos Respigadores’ is an amazing work of the Freejazz/Experimentation kind. Of totally improvisational nature, the pieces that the four musicians cooked here, simmer together in an enormous range of textures and smells, like a good satisfying meal does. Diatribes operate laptop, found objects (d’incise) and drums (Cyril), with complete passion and mastery. The self-contained tension that Cyril operates into his set of drums is palpable, we can almost taste the sweat coming out of his forehead when he bashes violently the metal and leather of his weapon of choice.
Paulo Curado (saxophone) and João Pedro Viegas (clarinet) complete the whole setup beautifully. They are both well experimented musicians and can tap into the tension which this kind of performances operates, bringing all the chaos together, augmenting or diminishing it as they see fit.

At the best moments, ‘Travessia dos Respigadores’ shows off all four musicians fusing together into a single sound-delivering force. A massive force to be reckoned with. Like a giant, well balanced punch in the teeth, that will make you see the stars, the bells and the little birds flying around your head.»
- Pedro Leitão

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

David Vélez : 20:51

’20:51′ is the first release in a new series here at test tube. David challenged me several months ago in doing some kind of book release, and then I though to myself: ‘why not starting a new mixed-media series of work?’. The idea started to materialize slowly and now we proudly present this new work from David Vélez.
In the future, expect a different kind of mixed-media works: text and audio, video and text, audio and video, audio and photo, etc. We want that artists feel completely free in aesthetics and form. This is their naked canvas here at test tube.» – Pedro Leitão

«’20:51′ is a publication composed of 1) a series of photographs I took and put together as a PDF publication, and 2) a sound piece titled ‘Polvo’. This is the first sound work I finish and publish in almost 9 months, a period where I looked around for inspiration and slowed down.
The word ‘Polvo’ in spanish means ‘Dust’ but also refers to the sexual act of reproduction: the origin of this meaning is unclear.

Celebrities like Woddy Allen, God, John Lennon, David Bowie and even Pablo Picasso have used the word ‘Polvo’/'Dust’ on their creations and/or on their quotes and titles.

“…quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris… “.

(“…for dust you are, and to dust shall you return…”).

…is a quote taken from Genesis 3:19 in the Bible. Some intellectuals claim that this Bible quote is the origin of the use of the word ‘Polvo’ to refer to the sexual act.
The cyclic and finite/infinite notion that are found on the use of the word ‘Polvo’ are quite inspiring and probably influenced the way the piece sounds and feels, since the title ‘Polvo’ was assigned to the piece before I composed it.
Dust was here before us, dust will remain here after us. That fact makes everything else simple, ephemeral and harmless.

There is not a manifest connection between the piece and the photos.»
- David Vélez

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

d’incise : morsure souffle

«Finally I had the honor of meeting Laurent Peter, the man behind the machines and objects that make up the name ‘d’incise’. He came for the second time to Lisbon to play with Cyril Bondi (Diatribes) and some more local jazz musicians. They did an awesome show at Crew Hassan and, as I wrote above, I met Laurent in person, that same night.
We exchanged some audio gifts and among the ones I got, there was a handmade copy of ‘Morsure Souffle’, the latest d’incise album we are offering you now.

‘Morsure Souffle’ is an amazing and fresh-sounding album. It’s an album that, while retaining the already well-known ‘d’incise trademark sound’, it’s also somewhat of a departure from his previous work. d’incise sounds much more detached from synthesis based and computer generated sounds, and almost completely embraces field recordings and found sounds as ‘prime matter’ for this work. The pieces are so much more complex and unpredictable, that you never know what you’ll be getting next, until it hits you.
This work is offered together with a set of ‘collages’ made by the artist himself, that fully complete the work. Be served and enjoy.» – Pedro Leitão

tube’|166
Runtime: 48’00”

? Download

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Blind Umizato – As the evening descends; Two rivers

Montgomery (Alabama) based Blind Umizato created a hefty release for test tube: This 80+ minutes adventure comes in four different flavours, four tracks that explore the limits of field recordings and experimental electro-acoustics.

Title track ‘As the evening descends; Two rivers’ is a machine-operated vehicle of some sort, undoubtedly mechanical; ‘GTR1′ is a long piece immersed in reverb and dense electro-magnetic flow; ‘Follow the one armed pendulum’ sounds like a mechanical arm coming and going while sometimes touching a trigger that eventually repeats or cuts samples; finally ‘New noise massacre’, the longest of the four pieces, despite its title is pretty easy on the ears until almost halfway, because from then on it fires a cacophony of glitch and distorted samples of something I am not able to describe. There is a lot to be discovered here.

- Pedro Leitão

? Download

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

DOPO – Blue Lands

tube’|157

Runtime: 49’43”

«Bittersweetness. Perhaps the word that best defines the nature and behaviour of humans. We are capable of the best and the worst, capable of love and hate, of happiness and sadness, luck and misfortune, we are both bitter and sweet at all times. Bittersweetness is also one of the best qualities that the music of the DOPO collective has to offer. You can find it in all of their songs, and that’s what makes their sound so human, so unique. The power to make us happy and sad at the same time. And we wonder: ‘how could we not love this? how could this not be part of our lives?’. And it couldn’t, because DOPO’s music translates into sounds the feelings we have while living our everyday lives. This is our sound.

‘Blue Lands’ is to be – unfortunately or not – DOPO’s demise. After this, DOPO will end but their legacy is here for everyone to discover, and in a way, will live on in our memories. ‘Blue Lands’ is also the opening track of this release and probably the best song they’ve done, ever. But this album has some really beautiful gems inside, like ‘The Long Red Fires of the Dying Day’, the most Animal Collective-y of all tracks, minus the usual freakish beat. In this album we can also find the most loose DOPO ever, as they used a generous amount of field recordings in the compositions, of which ‘Sea-lion of the Sea’ is a great example of, and also one of my favorite ‘under two minutes’ tracks of all time.
You will find as well the usual hypnotic guitar strings all over the album, plus some special moments, like this one in ‘A Delicate Turn and Twist’ which has a delicious distortion guitar which reminded me immediately of some of Sonic Youth’s best musical moments. There’s well placed drones in ‘A Long Wave of Yellow Light’, more ‘around the bonfire’ oddities in ‘The Crowd of Little Men’ and… I’m not telling you more. Just download this amazing album and find out for yourself.» – Pedro Leitão

? Download

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

OCP/João Ricardo : stepping stone

Runtime: 32’30”

«Three/four releases a year is the average production coming out of João Ricardo’s lab, making him a very busy artist and producer. Even with such a rate of releases, quality is not an issue, as João – aka Operador de Cabine Polivalente (OCP for short) always makes really interesting works.

‘Stepping Stone’ is one more of those works. Again, João takes the ‘single piece’ approach for added immersive experience. The piece shapeshifts through its thirty-two minutes and a half course, filled with highly textured sound palletes. A focused listener will find at least three distinct ‘movements’ in this piece, or better yet, three core ones with an additional smaller interlude-ish one. The second main movement is an organic symphony made from string notes colliding and overlapping themselves into repetitive loops. The final and last movement – and my favorite – starts with a dub ambient approach to a sci-fi drama; dense and heavy and glitchy, and rapidly turns into a full glitch/field recording/improv. long finale, with warm, rubbed-out edges of awesomely (is that a word?) well made ambient.
Someone once wrote in a review that there’s never a dull or boring moment in João Ricardo’s works, and that never was so absolutely and undeniably true as it is now.» – Pedro Leitão

? Download

Downloaded pt src=”http://modisti.com/fclicksql/show.php?js&id=2663&period=all” type=”text/javascript”> times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Ian D Hawgood – Her Name Was Frailty

Runtime: 43’40”

This is one of those releases that floods me with metaphorical insights.
In the beauty of breakage we find some of the answers for our deepest questions.
When something breaks, we are able to perceive it as what truly is, a collection of pieces of different shapes and sizes. Ian D Hawgood gives us four pieces of these ruined goods. Beginning with incessant timing of a vertical sound along a sea of soothing horizontality.

If frailty is the source of all things, then we ought to go back to it. All the abundant arrogance and destructive strength present in human beings has brought us to irreversible situation, into a mood that swings like the weather, each time faster and more bipolar. I believe “Her name was frailty” implies The Earth. Whenever we observe The Earth from a distance, in this case from an astronaut’s point of view, we can understand how far from reality we have strayed. The construction and sounds of this album allows me to, not only returning to a point of frailness, but also to activate a particular type of mental stimulation that empowers my psyche conceding me thoughts about restoration. Now, restoration implies an active participation in bringing the past back to life, in this case from broken to whole. This release definitely modifies my tiny rat heart.

? Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Naoto Taguchi – Untitled 9 Fragments Ordinaries Sound Materi

Naoto Taguchi – Untitled 9 Fragments Ordinaries Sound Materials

tube150

Runtime: 35’03”

This small album by Japanese musician Naoto Taguchi comes only a few

months after he released a four tracker at on;(do) music. Those four

tracks were re-mixed and re-recorded, Naoto added four more and an

extra one which is a remix of ‘Untitled Fragments #3′ by Daisuke

Miyatani, a fellow artist.

Presentations aside, Naoto’s music can be described as a gentle and

complex tapestry of electroacoustic, field recordings and lush drones

sounds. The release notes of his previous release talk about an artist

which is also an active dj with own distinguished style. His music

combines electronic sounds and real-life sounds into static and poetic

soundscapes that breathe like living compositions. His unique and

precisely detailed music style often evokes listeners moving pictures

and stories., and this is a very accurate description of what Naoto

Taguchi’s music sounds like to me.

Enjoy this late Christmas present – Pedro Leito

Naoto Taguchi, originally from Sapporo and currently living in Tokyo,

is an audiovisual artist with a strong musical background (having

played the piano since his early childhood) who is also interested in

programming, photography, design in general and spinning records as a

DJ. Locating himself inbetween a triangle of minimalist electronica,

dubmatics and quirky experimental sounds his latest release on test

tube entitled ‘untitled 9 fragments ordinaries sound materials’

concentrates on the experimental side of his oeuvre.

The main concept consists of chopped sound snippets that were

rearranged in a way they exhibit musical qualities despite a rather

unmusical approach (A technique pioneered by Oval in the last

century). The sound elements are not exactly repeated and therefore

subtile changes prevail with each layer added and substracted as it is

characteristic of a Minimalist music approach. Naoto Taguchis focus

is keeping a snapshot of a moment just like on a photography that

slowly reveals its details as the viewer gets lost in it. Untitled 9

Fragments Ordinaries Sound Materials uses the brightest colours for

painting its soundscapes Ive come across for a long time. It breathes

the atmosphere of a sunny day at the coastline with sparkling

reflections of waves in contre jour and seems to leave troubled

thoughts and conflicts behind. This brightness finds its equivalent in

patches of crystalline sounds slowly passing by like fibrious, wind

torn cirrus clouds.

That these fragments are not charged with meaningful titles or

philosophical instructions can be seen as a boon and the strong

suggestive motifs enforcing intense associations made any kind of

instructions superfluous anyway. The only thing I could see some room

for improvement is of a technical nature: The tracks have apparently

been limited a bit too much and as such most dynamic differences were

levelled with a notable pumping effect on former sound spikes. Apart

from this minor issue, Naoto Taguchis Untitled 9 Fragments Ordinaries

Sound Materials is a truly wonderful release, probably one of my

favourites of 2008, which demonstrates that even music rooted in

tonality can exhibit most interesting structures if a skilled musician

sets no limits to his imagination.

- Olliver Wichmann [Nodepet] / December 26, 2008

→ Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 – 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Brd Farbu : Zink

Brd Farbu : Zink

EP tube109 (January 30, 2008)

1. Grnt Vann

2. Uaktsom Stillhet

3. Flau Fure

4. Bltt Vann

5. Festet Mrke

The metallic name given to this EP does not misguide the listener: what this release from Norwegian sound designer Brd Farbu offers us, is about 17 minutes of cool and concrete ambiance. These tracks should be listened with high volume in order to be captured by the intense metallic sounds on it. Rather than new-age dumbness, Zink EP manages to unrest the listener with the sound bursts that reminds musique concrte works from earlier electronic recordings of the last century. Additionally, these are like soundscapes that seem to be inspired by nature itself, in such a way that puts Brd Farbu in the same vein of fellow Norwegian Biosphere, although the sounds in this release are unrelated with the chill ambience of Biosphere. In fact, Brd Farbu gives his personal view of the relation between sounds and nature, without any techno beat underneath. Of course, the sound design and production here is superb, and any further description will not fully characterize this work. Each one should listen and unravel what these abstract sounds can mean. – Csar Laia

→ Download

Downloaded times.
_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 – 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

.at/on – fon / scape

.at/on – fon / scape

tube|136 Runtime: 20’34”

.at/on is musician and composer Anton Holota from Ukraine, and after releasing with several well known labels like -N, Plex, Telescope and Nishi (among others) since 2004, .at/on comes to test tube with a special EP containing 4 rarities from his repertoire. The ‘fon’ pieces were previously released through Cifrarec. Project, a long gone and closed for good netlabel from Russia, so they were both unavailable until now. ‘Products of Passed Days’ and ‘scape-01′ on the other hand, were previously released in a very limited CD-r edition of 30 copies and also long gone. This was a great oportunity of re-releasing all four pieces.

.at/on main soundwork is offered through electroacoustic ambient and glitch and drone flavors. ‘fon a’ and ‘fon b’ are two small pieces of glitch ambient and experimental noise that together make up one complete story. ‘scape-01′ and ‘Products of Passed Days’ are much more on the ambient drone side, lenghtier and more spatious pieces, with a twist of dark ambient throughout.

.at/on has great works and a diverse discography and if you happen to enjoy this EP you should investigate the rest. – Pedro Leito

→ Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 – 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

David Vlez : tubemm001

David Vlez : tubemm001

tubemm001

Runtime: 20’51”

’20:51′ is the first release in a new series here at test tube. David challenged me several months ago in doing some kind of book release, and then I though to myself: ‘why not starting a new mixed-media series of work?’. The idea started to materialize slowly and now we proudly present this new work from David Vlez.

In the future, expect a different kind of mixed-media works: text and audio, video and text, audio and video, audio and photo, etc. We want that artists feel completely free in aesthetics and form. This is their naked canvas here at test tube. – Pedro Leito

’20:51′ is a publication composed of 1) a series of photographs I took and put together as a PDF publication, and 2) a sound piece titled ‘Polvo’. This is the first sound work I finish and publish in almost 9 months, a period where I looked around for inspiration and slowed down.

The word ‘Polvo’ in spanish means ‘Dust’ but also refers to the sexual act of reproduction: the origin of this meaning is unclear.

Celebrities like Woddy Allen, God, John Lennon, David Bowie and even Pablo Picasso have used the word ‘Polvo’/'Dust’ on their creations and/or on their quotes and titles.

“…quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris… “.

(“…for dust you are, and to dust shall you return…”).

…is a quote taken from Genesis 3:19 in the Bible. Some intellectuals claim that this Bible quote is the origin of the use of the word ‘Polvo’ to refer to the sexual act.

The cyclic and finite/infinite notion that are found on the use of the word ‘Polvo’ are quite inspiring and probably influenced the way the piece sounds and feels, since the title ‘Polvo’ was assigned to the piece before I composed it.

Dust was here before us, dust will remain here after us. That fact makes everything else simple, ephemeral and harmless.

There is not a manifest connection between the piece and the photos.

- David Vlez

pdf design:

2008 Grindcore Gourmet

audio:

2008 David Vlez

complete work:

2008 David Vlez/test tube

→ Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 – 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

OCP – Stepping Stone

OCP – Stepping Stone

tube|124 – Runtime: 32’30”

Three/four releases a year is the average production coming out of Joo Ricardo’s lab, making him a very busy artist and producer. Even with such a rate of releases, quality is not an issue, as Joo – aka Operador de Cabine Polivalente (OCP for short) always makes really interesting works.

‘Stepping Stone’ is one more of those works. Again, Joo takes the ‘single piece’ approach for added immersive experience. The piece shapeshifts through its thirty-two minutes and a half course, filled with highly textured sound palletes. A focused listener will find at least three distinct ‘movements’ in this piece, or better yet, three core ones with an additional smaller interlude-ish one. The second main movement is an organic symphony made from string notes colliding and overlapping themselves into repetitive loops. The final and last movement – and my favorite – starts with a dub ambient approach to a sci-fi drama; dense and heavy and glitchy, and rapidly turns into a full glitch/field recording/improv. long finale, with warm, rubbed-out edges of awesomely (is that a word?) well made ambient.

Someone once wrote in a review that there’s never a dull or boring moment in Joo Ricardo’s works, and that never was so absolutely and undeniably true as it is now. – Pedro Leito

Dont let the initial softness of Joo Ricardos new release on the Test Tube netlabel, Stepping Stone, lull you into any sense of comfort. Fissures will strike, and small noises will make themselves known, in rhythmic patterns that are more verbal than metrical, more about the insinuation of life than about effecting momentum.

Those early, subtle swells, given texture from an economical employment of static, eventually make way for a suite-like, long-form, half-hour performance. Later in the piece, alternate techniques will be brought to be bear on string instruments, heard in looping patterns of loosely strung guitar, then smatterings of rough percussion, then dark and claustrophobic scratchy explorations, before closing with an almost soothing (key word: almost) stretch of minimalist sound design.

Stepping Stone is, admirably, a single-song release, which is a format particularly suitable to netlabels, where music is made available for free download and distribution by the musician and releasing organization. The compression of the musical experience into one, individual, standalone track adds to the immediacy of the experience, and thus to the sense of unmediated communication between artist and audience.

Ricardo, recording as OCP (or Operador de Cabine Polivalente), isnt here just stringing together diverse modes. For example, those loose strings connect to the rough percussion thanks to the manner by which the analog source material fits into the electro-acoustic setting, and the subsequent claustrophobia is impressive precisely because of the exit of the more organic sounds that had appeared earlier. Like any successful suite, this one is marked by narrative intent, one that compels and rewards close listening.No reviews yet.

- Marc Weidenbaum [Disquiet] / May 23, 2008

→ Download

Downloaded times.

cover:

2008 David Matos

2008 aeriola::behaviour

music:

2007 OCP/Joo Ricardo

2008 test tube



report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 – 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

d´incise – Les Restes du Festin

d’incise – Les Restes du Festin

tube’|123

Rhythms that bleed. Rhythms that rust and fall apart. Rhythms that fracture your perception of time. D’incise’s decompositional approach is charged with an electricity that turns actual objects into distorted images. At times, you will find your neck’s vertebrae moving back and forth to keep a time only existant in your mind. In the collaborative nature of “Les Restes du Festin”, we can hear micro-cuts from various improvised music recordings of Johann Bourquenez (piano), Christian Graf (guitare), Christophe Berthet (saxophones), Gal Riondel (saxophones), Cyril Bondi (drums) and d’incise (piano and percusions). In addition, we can hear the talented intervention of Lena, Bluermutt, Hopen, Ibakusha, and Monsieur Connard.

Here, electronic thoughts are translated into numerous acoustic dances to the point of loosing distinction. Dancing thoughts of electronic motion. A grand piano that stands up as anthropomorphic figure to interact and dialogue with the player. Frequencies that tickle the tympanic membrane in order to descend through the eustachian tube reverberating eternally. Binary codes that materialize into percussive instruments; number ones as drumsticks, and zeros as bass drums.

Dusty pieces of metal falling through a waterfall of sound waves until they reach the depths of an ocean of noise. Water ripples become multicolored threads that float around a beam of light. Mercury plugs that melt when plugged into amplifiers. Unidentified Flying Objects that become cymbals and give a message about phenomenal spaces. Static hairs follicles that abandon the skin to encounter the vibrations coming from the speakers. These are some of the visions I receive when listening to this sonic constructions. Micro-cuts from a macro-musician. – Sebastian Alvarez

→ Download

Downloaded times.

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 – 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Adrián Juárez – Planicie Corrediza

Adrin Jurez – Planicie Corrediza

tube |115

Runtime: 24’55”

Adrin Jurez is a sound experimentalist from Buenos Aires, Argentina and he has been working with different sound languages since 2005. Not long but he has already spawned an impressive number of solo and collaborative works since then. Adrin works with various genres and sytles, ranging from IDM, vocal music, ambient, post rock and experimental to orchestral music, afro, percusion, latin american folk and others.

‘Planicie Corrediza’ is one of his most recent works to be filed under improv./experimental, and one that test tube has the immense pleasure to release. With mysterious titles like ‘Batanonabitidolac’ or ‘Cadoltibina’, this EP is roughly 25 minutes of pure, unadultered ordinary and out of the ordinary sounds. Adrin uses water and dirt, bubbles and sand, cardboard boxes, wood planks and pieces, acoustic guitars in pure agony, tin cans, plates and glasses, bassdrums, chimes and whistles, voices and throat sounds, PVC tubing and a whole lot more that cannot be effectively described – we can only imagine. This sound architecture results in completely organic non-music, non-compositions, incidentally without any narrative but telling us some kind of story at the same time. Music from the earth, from within a house, from someone else’s day or night, music built like a tree-house where we keep adding pieces of wood and metal and found parts and it gets bigger and different and special every time we add something new. Every object has its own life and produces its own distinctive familiar or unfamiliar sound. This is improvisation music made out of unorthodox instruments at its best, and the experience of listening to it is more than special, it’s an experience – Pedro Leito

01 • Batanonabitidolac [8'19'']

02 • Carsolecaminaga [7'05'']

03 • Cadoltibina[2'25'']

Dowbload

Downloaded times.

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 – 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Lee Rosevere – Light Years

Lee Rosevere – Light Years

test tube 112

Runtime: 30’34”

The dazzling state before the magnanimous perspective of space is something that affects most people. The infinite, the fascinating void? the senses numbed by the impossibility to explain everything that surrounds us? these are the first images that ?Light Years? – a new release by Lee Rosevere ? awake in our mind. Lee has been releasing his works mostly through his own label Happy Puppy Records and a few others like my good friend Adam?s Proc-Records.

The beginning of this work starts with a drone that moves around within minimal frequencies, as if it was the soundtrack of a voyage through space and everything it represents ? the emptiness and the fullness. Micro-tonalities gravitate and leave us in static before the sound waves that fill the universe. The cosmos, nebulae and aurora borealis saw through a sonic telescope made of abstract frequencies, that could prolong into eternity like a Buddha Machine. In ?Onyx?, time advances at light speed only to land in a future inhabited by machines, cold magnetic sounds that collide with the dirty steel of robots. All the speeches are strange, indefinite, leaving behind only minimalisms which end up dominating us in an almost hypnotic manner. An invasion with license to travel (to dream)? – Pedro Nunes

Downloads:

01 ? Nebula

02 ? Onyx

03 ? Deathless

Downloaded times.

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 – 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Cory Allen – Satori in Atlantis

Cory Allen – Satori in Atlantis

tube 104

Runtime: 30’00”

As you struggle to stop your thoughts, you can still hear the conversation of some neurons. Sometimes they sound like little pieces of metal sliding over a self-constructed organism, or granular rings that create ephemeral vibrations. In any case, they lead you into a psychic silence where you are able to listen to a higher consciousness. The enlightenment and awakening of your being brings you the true nature of creation. As you listen, you can create a new world formed of legendary islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, pleasantly sink into deep waters, or embrace your own neurological research. Once you find yourself floating, “Satori in Atlantis” allows this experience to last longer and create new beginnings to deeply understand the world you imagined. With this insightful sonic production, you are able to associate and assemble the wisdom of eastern philosophies and quantum mechanics. Allen’s creations succeed in becoming a source of energy.

Satori can be found in every moment of life, it is wrapped in all daily activities, its goal to unwrap them to see and hear satori. Be ready to submerge into a very profound view of the unified field. Be ready to journey into deeper levels of intelligence in nature and establish a dialog with your “self.”

- Sebastian Alvarez

Download: http://modisti.com/ccount/click.php?id=1110

Downloaded pt language=”Javascript”>ccount_display(’1110′) times.

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 - 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Krypton : silent drama

Krypton : silent drama

tube 102

Runtime: 48’06”

Whether a fictional planet in the DC Comics universe or a chemical element, known as a noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere, Krypton has the ability to expand into your subconscious. Along these sounds, you would be able to walk through a cold hummed darkness to develop systems of echolocation that will take you into distant memories. In this realm, memory becomes a bright greenish-yellow light that glows and reverbs. Once submerged into the nature of “silent drama”, you might hear the images of a forsaken territory, of a territory that is like faint shadows, of a connection with the land that is not familiar any longer. Once thought to be completely inert, Krypton is known to form a few compounds. These compounds are substances formed when two or more elements are chemically joined. In this case these substances are sonic. By suddenly arriving with some metal keys being plucked up and down, “human rights” is one of the tracks that will probably bring you back into the human constructs of a cyclical and percussive time. On the whole, these seven pleasant and fluorescent tracks are aural treats that can make you understand that all is one, that there are no fundamental divisions, and a unified set of laws underlie nature. – Sebastian Alvarez

Downloads:

01 Silent Drama

02 Detail of my

03 Labour

04 Human Rights

05 Croon

06 Monism

07 Polelum

Download: http://modisti.com/ccount/click.php?id=1058

Downloaded pt language=”Javascript”>ccount_display(’1058′) times.





report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 - 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

etnia non : distal

etnia non : distal

tube 099

Runtime: 63’08”

Another personal favorite of 2007 comes from the far away Australia. James McDougall a.k.a. Entia Non possesses the rare talent of putting together seemingly ordinary field recordings in a way that they sound to always have belonged together. If you enjoyed My Fun ‘Idyll EP’ release you’ll love ‘Distal’. James manipulates found sounds using ambient electronica techniques, tape reels and vinyl records into the most beautiful soundscapes you’ll be able to hear. ‘Watching the paint dry’ is one of the best here, with sampled voices scattered amidst soft humming tones that sound like distant lost ships at sea. Beautiful stuff. ‘A Winter Plateau’ is another great track. A lot more into the ‘nostalgia’ theme than the previous ones – which is a recurrent theme when it comes to ambient music – but also very uplifting. Sparse real world here and there, but always embraced by a warm blanket of soft light. Makes us want to cuddle around a fireplace in a winter night with a cup of hot chocolate in our hand. Closing track ‘Above’ is a real gem. Runs for a little over ten minutes and covers mostly sci-fi soundtrack territory, which is something of a personal favorite around here. Could have been in Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’ soundtrack and it would fit like a glove. James is a really talented musician who should not go unnoticed for he makes really amazing music capable of putting us into various states of dreamscape modes. With the perfect drug this can open portals to distant worlds too.

James released a previous album on the infamous CDR label U-COVER called ‘Inter Alia’. If you enjoyed what you have listened here you should go and buy it immediately, because it is a limited edition. Also, keep your eyes peeled for another Entia Non album here at test tube, somewhere in 2008. Thanks for listening! – Pedro Leito

01 Upon arrival

02 Watching the paint dry

03 A Winter Plateau

04 ABurning back in vacant fields

05 Cultural Plagiarism

06 Isthismytea

07 Hinterlund

08 Above

Download: http://modisti.com/ccount/click.php?id=1045

Downloaded pt language=”Javascript”>ccount_display(’1045′) times.

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 - 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!

Miguel OnofriMezzo – Ostracismo

Miguel OnofriMezzo – Ostracismo

tube057 (November 24, 2006)

Miguel Onofri lives in this Argentinian town called Mendoza, population 876 000, not very far from Chile’s border and about 1000m above the sea level, up in the mountain plateau. Pretty far away from everything we know, it seems. Nonetheless, Miguel is an active part of an artistic community of visual artists and musicians – Miguel is also a video artist -, they put up shows and invite guest artists, touring around some towns like Crdoba, and they even started their own Netlabel, SincroWeb.

As a sound artist, Miguel is known as Mezzo, putting his laptop to work on low frequency signals and white noise and drone-based minimal electronica. Harsh stuff, and amazingly well done.

‘Ostracismo’, although being a very small release, inflicts variable levels of damage to our ears. And it’s good.

‘Track #01′ is a small intro of low frequency clicks and cuts, Ryoji Ikeda style, and is somewhat violent. It takes 59 seconds to go away, ‘though. ‘Track #02′, the longest track in this EP, starts with machine errors, like an electrical generator going berserk, sending SOS signals. Slowly, an underlying drone appears and takes control of the track. The rest is up to you to discover.

‘Track #03′, another short piece, an interlude-type of thing, is of a dissonant type of sound frequencies, a different kind of error, easier on the ears but also very interesting to explore. ‘Track #04′ is a personal favorite. It’s an emotional drone, unfortunately too small to enjoy to its fullness. ‘Track #05′ is made of another type of interferences. You could almost visualize the wavefields of data being put out. Again, too damn short to put us in a transe. Awesome release. Now, can I have another 40 minutes of this, please? – Pedro Leito

Download: http://modisti.com/ccount/click.php?id=1017

Downloaded pt language=”Javascript”>ccount_display(’1017′) times.

cover front

cover back

report broken link

_________________
Test Tube Netlabel (monocromatica)

C/O Pedro Leito

Rua Damio de Gis, 16 - 3 ESQ

1400-089 LX (Lisboa)

PORTUGAL

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!