"Planes converge and intersect, bowed and rubbed into existence, shadowed by a hatch of rustles and rumbling. There's almost diagrammatic clarity to a mobile structure of tensions that charges the music, a structure of unplayed and unplayable elements that exists virtually yet vitally in relationships between sounds that can actually be heard. At the same time, correspondence and contrast within the fabric of the piece, its fibre and textured substance, are crucial. The outcome is restrained but not reductive; music as a material process, galvanised by the current of collective attentiveness."
- Julian Cowley, The Wire #248

"...a rich improvisation in which the bowings of Davies, Garcia and Prévost (the latter mainly on tam-tam) combine with the resonant clunks and subtler rustles and tones of the amplified textures and electronics in a captivating and diverse sequence of transient configurations and subdued moments."
- Wayne Spencer, Paris Transatlantic, November 2004

"...these whines, grumbles, and contact mic clicks coalesce into a slow-roiling surge that suggests both the gradual melting of some dirty glacier and Feldman's Rothko Chapel reworked for Luigi Russolo's mythical noise contraptions."
- Joe Panzner, Grooves 015

"The careful selection and placement of sounds in the music are what matter most. Sonic events occur simultaneously, or overlap, and in the process the music thickens and thins and accumulates complexity."
- Brian Marley, The Wire #232

"Well proportioned systems work symbiotically and there's a slight AMM flavour somewhere; the details are exceptionally clear, the musicians maintaining a mysterious restraint which is the basis for a kind of laboratory soundtrack where each sonic alchemist wants to make companions aware of his [or her] important discovery."
- Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, August 2004

"...an uncommonly beautiful set, all ears directed inward, listening for the next breath just drawn from the air."
- Jon Dale, Stylus Magazine, July 2004

"It is as if little by little the sound is thrown into the void."
- Fader Magazine (Japan) 2004 / vol 010


sands-zine


Altro discorso, più fine e articolato per fortuna, è quello proposto dal gruppo Sakada. Formazione che, oltre ai già presenti Mattin, Eddie Prévost e Rosy Parlane (all'occasione assente) si espande ad altre entità, prendendo così le sembianze di un piccolo collettivo. Il melange viene stretto con nomi più o meno noti nel 'giro' come: Mark Wastell, Margarida Garcia e Rhodri Davies. Svariati sospiri del passato riaffiorano durante l'ascolto della mini suite: Morton Feldman (un telaio di suoni che s'incastrano e si susseguono in un crescendo che assume sempre più tinte omogenee), l'evidente richiamo AMM, l'estrema radicalità d'improvvisare (il suono grattugiato e ostico ottenuto dagli strumenti) che con agio trasporta, visto anche il ruolo della Garcia, nelle recenti svolte sonore portoghesi.

Ricapitolando: la forzata esasperazione sonica di “North Six” si bilancia in negativo con l'intensità di “Never Give Up On The Margins Of Logic” che, seppur ricavata da moduli già solidificati in svariate esperienze simili, riesce a donare venti minuti sfiorati di piacevole di(a)strazione uditiva.




discography
w.m.o/record label
desetxea net label
www.mattin.org