[ reviews ]

untitled #9015. untitled #90 [ rec. 1999 ]

> rel. 1999 - CD Pre-Feed, Italy
>> res. 2002 - CD [Ohm] Records, Norway ()
Francisco López "Untitled #90" (CD, Pre-Feed - Italy)
"untitled #90" is a shorter work (45 minutes) and might go as a 'La Selva' off-shoot work. 'La Selva' was a study in tropical rainforests and uses the sounds. Even for those who don't seem to like López' inaudibility, 'La Selva' is his best work. This new work is almost like an enlargement of certain sounds from 'La Selva' - the shirping of insects (well or birds - how do I tell the difference livig in a city?) which are looped... but the true power of this work (and in fact of all great minimal music) lies in the fact that by the time you think it's the same sound, a slight chance happens, which changes the piece. Largely an audible work - and beautiful!" (VITAL)

Francisco López "Untitled #90" (CD - Pre-Feed, 1999)
The sonic vibrancy of tropical rainforests is highlighted on the one long (45 minutes) track of Untitled #90. But, of course, in the hands of Francisco López, the kinetic sounds are manipulated and shaped in most imaginative ways. Opening with the buzzing hum of life (insects? birds? animals?), the ambience of life within the moist, humid rainforest, envelopes the listener. Not just simple field recordings, the sounds are looped, subtly stretched and tweaked, in such a way as to really bring the edges to the forefront, the amplification scratching at the eardrums with jagged nails. Caustic and enlightening, it teems with sandpaper rubbing resonance, the life here one of undefined energy as Francisco mixes and blends the tones and harsh cadences, a melting pot of undefined, but ultimately living, sounds. The rising pitch (I am inclined to think it is birds, but it may be Francisco getting aggressive within the metamorphosis) heightens the nerve endings, salt on the wound, a flood of abrasive energy. Finally, it settles down as the night blackens the sky, a multitude of insects in chorus. But even here, in the darkness, as the track reaches completion, the chorus, augmented with the sounds of birds and animals (of course), takes a position of belligerence, the underlying truth of existence in the rainforest brought to light. Day or night, life is in constant motion. Fascinating. Side-line Magazine (USA, 2002)

Francisco López "untitled #90" (CD - [Ohm], 2002)
"A profound listening experience and immersion in the usual minimal/maximal music of this spanish sound sculptor; a step beyond from the old 'La Selva' CD, hyperrealistic field recordings of insect sounds subjected to a fine process of frequency enforcement so to generate simultaneous states of emptiness and contraction of the sound space. Foreground music, sounds to be seen and to be drowning into - 'ambient absoluto' that reaches unreachable kinds of organic/noise sonic frequencies." [Ohm] press release (Norway, 2002)