PHOSPHOR
Bio/Cría Cuervos/The Beautiful Schizophonic - Symptom of Thisease

Bio is the nomme de plume of Samuel Jeronimo and he presents quite an eclectic work, something reflected perhaps in the sampled voice in the heart of the piece.
His 'The distant image of abstract light' begins with a rich gamelan like percussive passage of about three minutes in length. It exploits the exotic timbres of the gamelan ensemble to great effect with a wide bandwidth from very low gongs to very bright upper register chimings and sinuous vibrati. Jaunty fugue-esque figures, acousmatic drone-stases, ethnic loops, heavy industrial brutalities and driving techno beats all contribute their various colours and moods to a piece which is manifold in its personality and consequently always engaging.
In contrast 'Foret, foret, des yeux fourmillent' by Cria Cuervos aka Eugenio Maggi adopts a more contemplative poise. The sonic environment here is one of gentle noise. Narrow-band noise fields flow in and out of more abrupt rattlings and minimal synthesis creating an atmosphere not so much glacial as it is potentially volcanic.
It is this latent energy which fuels the piece, thwarting the listener's anticipation of an explosion or resolution.
The Beautiful Schizophonic is Jorge Manta's. He contributes three pieces to the CD.
The first, 'Her heart is a room full of drones' does exactly as its title would suggest. A subtle combination of auto-panning/amplitude modulation and the juxtapositioning of soft low rumbling drones with delicate more metallic higher ones creates a satisfyingly peaceful yet disorientating effect.
The following two pieces, 'Soul Scanner' and 'Girl in ecstatic peace' are similarly droney and static. The former is heavily distorted and the latter is so appropriately titled as to render any of my attempts at description instantly redundant.

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