Davies, Angharad and Cremaster (Monteiro / Fages)

Pluie Fine

Label: Potlatch Country: France

"Pluie Fine is the collaboration between the electroacoustic duo of Cremaster and the violinist Angharad Davies. Ferran Fages and Alfredo Costa Monteiro, the two artists behind Cremaster, have been active in this formation for more than ten years now and, under this guise, have been harvesting the potential of this music in loudness and abrasiveness, while taking the logical steps forward in the areas between acoustic, amplified and electro-magnetic phenomena. While this has at times drawn the spotlight more towards the unstable nature of their undertaking, in truth what their strategies do is they allow them to thrive at the limits of their instruments' capacity and to construct striking examples of edgy and precarious beauty in areas where others would rarely step upon.

Working with an accomplished instrumentalist of the calibre of Angharad Davies, they find someone who has both the force and the analytical faculties in their playing to be able to work efficiently as a collaborator and not as a mere colourist. Here, in the three pieces of Pluie Fine, we will find the musicians in fine form, dragging tones and extracting overtones from their respective palettes in striking unison. These pieces stand easily side-to-side alongside some of the now-classic examples of long-form minimalist drone music, all the while maintaining a firm footing in the contemporary experience of electronic music and its convergence with explorations of instrumental technique that musicians like Davies have been such a big part of. The three here dexterously weave their individual voices together throughout the proceedings, with Davies' rigorous bowing of the violin's strings merging perfectly with the duo's electronic flutters and drone arcs. Lurking throughout, are swarms of grainy textures and electric spikes that go a long way towards shaking this precarious assemblage out of any sense of false comfort, all-in-all providing for an intense and meticulously constructed forty-five minutes of music."-Kostis Kilymis