FRANCISCO LOPEZ & RICHARD FRANCIS - BROMBRON 14: IN DE BLAAUWE HAND
Korm Plastics KP 3033
CD only

Korm Plastics is proud to present the ninth release in the Brombron series. Originally a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize.

Francisco López (Spain) and Richard Francis (New Zealand) have created "in
de blaauwe hand" upon invitation from Extrapool for a brief working residency in Nijmegen, to develop a collaboration piece for the Brombron CD series. Working with very small seed source sound samples that were exchanged between them, two intermingling compositional paths unfolded in two parallel small studios. In a short but very intense- period of time a whole world of very delicate and subtle materials arose. The whole piece (a single one-hour track) merges without mix a dreamy geography of subtleties and complex organicities that is more the result of aesthetic affinities than pre-structured plan. In that sense, this is a composition born from the sound themselves, following the paths indicated by them. And a surprising one.

Over the last twenty years Francisco López has been developing a powerful and consistent world of minimal electroacoustic soundscapes, 'trying to reach an ideal of absolute concrète music'. To date, his catalog comprises more than 140 sound works, which have been released by one hundred record labels from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, UK, Norway, Greece, Russia, Canada, USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Japan, China, Australia. He has toured extensively throughout Western and Eastern Europe, North, Central and South America, Japan and Australia doing acousmatic performances, and he has received commissions from a number of reknown institutions and organizations, such as the Dutch and Spanish National Radios, the Goethe Institut, V2 Organization (Rotterdam), Yale University Theater (New Haven), the Ralph Lemon Company (New York), the Zeitkratzer Ensemble (Berlin), Creative Time (New York), Quartier Ephemere (Montreal) and Sound Traffic Control (San Francisco).

Richard Francis has been releasing works on CD/vinyl, performing solo and in collaboration as a touring artist since 1996. He uses field recordings of acoustic and electronic sounds and a tone generator to compose textural and tonal sound works. He has released solo and collaborative works on a number of labels worldwide and runs his own label CMR through which he releases limited edition lathe cut records by New Zealand artists. In performance he uses a computer and electronics and has toured Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, USA and Europe. Since 2003, Francis has composed works for sound installation, participating in group and solo shows at galleries throughout New Zealand. He has collaborated for recording and/or performance with many artists including Bruce Russell, Francisco Lopez, Jason Kahn, Mattin, Birchville Cat Motel, Gate, MSBR, Tetuzi Akiyama, Lawrence English, Rosy Parlane, Howard Stelzer, Jason Lescalleet, Jay Sullivan, Empirical, Pumice, Kuwayama Kiyoharu, Phil Dadson, Anthony Guerra, Sean Meehan, Ishigami Kazuya, Antony Milton, James Kirk, MHFS, Tim Coster, Paul Winstanley, Takefumi Naoshima, Toshihiro Koike.

Design by Richard Francis

This CD is available for 16 euros including worldwide shipping. You can pay with paypal. Send an e-mail to order

listen to excerpt

Reviews:

FRANCISCO LOPEZ & RICHARD FRANCIS - BROMBRON 14 : IN DE BLAAUWE HAND (CD by Korm Plastics)
On this fourteenth issue in the Brombron-series, one of contemporary sound art scene's most prolific artists, Francisco Lopez join forces with another interesting artist from the contemporary scene: Richard Francis. For more than two decades Spanish sound artist Francisco Lopez has exploited the connections between field recordings and "acousmatic listening" - the latter term was originally founded by the father of "Musique concrete", Pierre Schaeffer, with inspirations back to the the Greek philosopher Pythagoras and his "blind" teaching sessions. The idea behind "acousmatic listening" is that the listener must experience the sound independent from its source. The strength of Lopez is the ability to utilize natural sounds that most people barely notice and transform these sounds into sonic art. New Zealand-based sound artist Richard Francis has a similar approach to his explorations using field recordings of acoustic and electronic sounds combined with tone generators to compose textural and tonal sound works. "In de blaauwe hand" is one lengthy piece running 66 minutes. Conceptually the work reminds me of Francisco Lopez's excellent "Untitled #89" released on the Or-label in 1999. With a barely perceptible crawl in from silence, softly mechanical drones begin to appear, rippling with a radiant, ever-building hum. As the piece progress the hum gets thicker and the drone texture strengthens. Despite the growing intensity in expression the piece never gets harsh. As we reach the 45 minute mark, clicking pulses are overtaken by thick drones of buzzing noises that despite its ongoing abrasiveness also seems hypnotic and comfortable. The sound of a tone generator slowly mixes up with the buzzing drones, giving a nice depth and complexity to the sound texture. As is the usual case with releases in the Brombron-series, "In de blaauwe hand" are neatly packed in a tasteful card-slip-sleeve. Highly recommended! (NM)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl/ (VITAL WEEKLY)

FRANCISCO LÓPEZ & RICHARD FRANCIS / In de blaauwe hand (Korm Plastics)

Numéro 14 dans la série Brombron, qui permet à deux artistes (ou plus) de travailler ensemble dans le cadre d'une courte résidence au centre expérimental Extrapool (à Nijmegen, Pays-Bas). Francisco López et Richard Francis, deux artistes sonores bien connus (le premier pour ses longues mystifications bourdonnantes et silencieuses, le second pour son étiquette CMR et son rôle clé sur la scène expérimentale néo-zélandaise), livrent ici une uvre ininterrompue d'une heure, qui procède par bonds lents et par courtes pauses, tout en demeurant statique, discrète, fortement axée sur le sous-sol du spectre audible. J'ai décroché, mais j'écoutais avec un casque d'écoute sans fil qui, je crois, n'arrivait pas à rendre les fréquences basses. À réécouter dans de meilleures conditions, juste pour voir.

Number 14 in the Brombron series, which provides two (or more) artists with an opportunity to work together as part of a short residency at the experimental music center Extrapool (Nijmegen, The Netherlands). Francisco López and Richard Francis, two well known sound artists (one for his long drony and silence-filled aural mystifications, the other for his CMR label and his key role on New Zealand's experimental music scene) here deliver a continuous 60-minute work that unfolds in slow leaps and silent bounds, while remaining static, discreet, and focused on the bottom end of the audible spectrum. I switched off at some point, but I was listening with a wireless headphone set that had a hard time rendering the bass frequencies. I'll listen again under better circumstances, just to see what happens.

http://blog.monsieurdelire.com/2009/10/2009-10-28-lopezfrancis.html

<<<