"via
vespucci " (CD) October 2004
Antifrost |afro2025| - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Mattin /
Dion Workman
Via Vespucci
GREECE ANTIFROST
afro2025 CD (2005)
A low,
attenuated whine exudes near-silent menace, over 19 minutes of
tension and
hate! Gradually, this hateful noise turns into a low, burring
growl, like that
of a robotic panther programmed to psyche you out by
staring at you
for long moments, before it pounces on you and rips out your
throat. Talk
about your antisocial tendencies! No wonder Mattin rarely
collaborates
with anyone! Pound for pound, this record is even more 'minimal
' than a lot of
the current Erstwhile stuff doing the rounds, but Mattin
would be far too
fierce to fit in with that friendly co-operative bunch.
Alienated from
the world, he works up a bitter, electronic sulk and sits
there frowning
like a stone mullet. Eventually the sound of his constrained
emotion turns
into a jet-engine roar, still laced with slow-burning anger. A
real friendship
killer, this one...great stuff!
ED PINSENT
25/07/2005
www.antifrost.gr
THE WIRE (UK) The prolific Basque
laptop abuser gets together with New Zealander Workman, former member
of Improv/ noise combo Thela, in a brief but well-executed powerbook
summit meeting. ViaVespucci consists of a single piece, a 20 minute
crescendo that builds almost imperceptibly from its opening ultra high
frequency disturbances to its final white noise white-out. This is
achieved by a gradual, careful accruement of lower and higher tones and
crackling midrange static. If that sounds too schematic to be fully
engaging you'd be mistaken. The way the two tease out surprising
textures from such minimal resources is inspirational- that
such unexpected episodes occur within the context of the track's rigid
pacing and architecture is doubly impressive. Keith Moline
PHOSPHOR(NL) Two artist
active in the sound art circuit have joined forces to create a 19
minute long minimalistic and low-key approach towards extreme sounds in
a minimal context. Mattin as well as Dion Workman have released on a
regular basis, due to which they got known in the experimental scene.
Dion Workman co-founded the label Sigma Editions (now situated in New
York) and is part of the project New No York and Mattin, head of
w.m.o/record label, worked with musicians such as Mark Westell, Oren
Ambarchi, Radu Malfatti and formed Sakada with Eddie Prévost and
Rosy Parlane.
Their latest output heads off with a combination of fine static hiss
and a long sine wave. After several minutes a deep drone is added with
utmost care. The drone slowly gets on the surface and has been put on
top of a blanket with tentative splatters of static. The chugging
sub-bass tone grows and grows till a steadily wavering pool of granular
noise has been reached. The music, growing from mesmerizing calm to
dizzyingly loud, leaves behind a wonderful experience. Excellent
release.
VITAL WEEKLY (NL) Mattin and
Dion Workman. Both have a strong love for extreme sounds in a minimal
context, using their powerbooks to generate extreme frequencies. Mattin
more than Workman is an improvisation guy, and he succeeded in taking
Workman to the improvisation ideas. Over the course of nineteen minutes
they start from a soft but high frequency and built it up (in a much
faster way than Ilios does) by continuously adding layers of mid to low
frequencies to the table. Hard to tell what it is, but I assume they
are the processed sine waves found on test CDs. The result is a very
varied and rich recording, with a lot of space for the captured
ambience of the space this was recorded in. (FdW)
JADE (FR)Cet EP est
l'occasion de porter à la lumière la démarche live
du DuoMattin Workman. Une pièce de 19 minutes, donnée
à New York l'an passé.Mattin, musicien Basque collabore
depuis de nombreuses années avec l'internationale, Mark Wastell,
Oren Ambarchi, Junko, Dean Roberts, Klaus Fillip, Taku Unami, Dieb 13,
Xavier Erkizia, Eddie Prévost, etcŠ. Dion Workman, quand
à lui, dirige le label /maison d'édition Sigma et a
travailléavec Julien Ottavi ou Rosy Parlane. Ancien guitariste
au sein de Thela, On l'a entendu récemment sur Antiopic avec
Ching, exploration microscopique et subliminale de
l'électronique.Via Vespucci est un crescendo
électronique, une amplification digitale lente et
impérieuse, sous tension, mené par Workman et qui fini
par se libérer sous l'impulsion de Mattin.On pense à un
générateur électrique sub aquatiqueŠ
LIABILITY (FR) Ce petit disque a beau être court mais il n’en est pas moins intense. Cet enregistrement live réalisé par le basque Mattin et le new-yorkais d’adoption Dion Workman possède tous les ingrédients pour déstabiliser son auditoire pouvant soit provoquer un profond malaise soit des moments de grandes exaltations. Les deux hommes qui se posent clairement comme des figures des musiques électroniques expérimentales possèdent un curriculum vitae qui parle très largement pour eux. Enfin surtout pour Mattin car si Dion Workman a déjà travaillé avec des gens comme Rosy Parlane ou Julien Ottavi, le basque a multiplié les collaborations les plus emblématiques (Eddie Prévost, Oren Ambarchi, Junko, Dean Roberts, Taku Unami…). Ce morceau de près de 19 minutes se prend comme une véritable claque mais dont la force peut assez mal se retranscrire sur un format comme celui-ci. « Via Vespucci » se devait donc de se vivre directement en live pour en percevoir toute l’intensité. Au mieux le disque peut donner une idée assez précise de ce que fut la performance : une pièce électronique linéaire qui monte progressivement en puissance pour finir en une sorte d’explosion bruitiste des plus évocatrice. Très vite on comprend que le duo ne se cantonnera pas à un morceau quasi silencieux qui naviguerait entre chuchotement et explorations ambiants. Si « Via Vespucci » commence effectivement comme cela, le ton change très rapidement pour s’achever par ce que l’on sait. Cette opposition entre calme et brutalité a pour avantage de ne pas laisser insensible. Peut-être trouvera t’on la chose des plus secondaire puisque le bruitisme improvisé a déjà été exploré par des gens comme Merzbow mais les deux hommes ont su parfaitement doser leurs effets en produisant une performance qui ne s’éternise pas mais qui ne laisse aucunement sur sa faim. « Via Vespucci » s’arrête au moment où il le faut dans un maelström sonore enthousiasmant. A vrai dire on n’attendait que cela. On est servi. Fabien
LIABILITY
(FR) Via
Vespucci is a 19 minute live recording by the artists Dion Workman and
Mattin. This work consists of very minimal, static noises (hiss and
crackling) that are of a very high pitch, near the inaudible. Somewhere
in the background there is some lower rumbling. Suddenly there is a low
buzzing sound with occasional interruptions. Slowly the work becomes
more audible as monumental drones/noises rise from the background to a
massive climax to simply break down again.The result of this
minimal use of sound is that people that are unaware of this kind of
Œmusic¹ would probably be tempted to think that their refrigerator
or air-conditioning have just broken down. Others might just become
very annoyed. People who do like this sort of thing are probably aware
of the works of John Hudak, Francisco Lopez or Crawl Unit, to which
this release is very much comparable.
discography
w.m.o/record label
desetxea net label
www.mattin.org