The Squid's Ear Magazine


Monteiro, Alfredo Costa / Miguel A. Garcia: Aq'Ab'Al (Mikroton Recordings)

Audio experimenters Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Miguel A. Garcia join forces in an album titled after "Aq'ab'al", the Mayan Astrology Sign about polar opposites--dawn and dusk, hot and cold, black and white--which represents renewal and change, through a series of opposing audio events, forceful sounds of texture, feedback, and intervention.
 

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Alfredo Costa Monteiro-electronics

Miguel A. Garcia-electronics


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UPC: 5056124611320

Label: Mikroton Recordings
Catalog ID: cd 57
Squidco Product Code: 24001

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2017
Country: Russia
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded by Miguel A. Garcia.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The second appearance of Alfredo Costa Monteiro after critically acclaimed Contour with Keith Rowe, Kurt Liedwart and Ilia Belorukov, and the first physical release of Miguel A. Garcia after Uropygi with Kurt Liedwart, Ilia Belorukov and Dmitry Krotevich on Mikroton Digital.

The album is titled after "Aq'ab'al", the Mayan Astrology Sign about polar opposites - dawn and dusk, hot and cold, black and white which represents renewal, change, the end of boredom or new beginnings. The album takes off into the territory of spectral modulation of an array of sound waves and intrusions of abrupt shifts in the flow. A forceful energy that seems to be constrained, captured into a muffled atmosphere. Ebbs and flows of the circulation of sound waves, mixed with ferocious textural feedbacks configurate a kind of a primary vibration, combined with high pitch chord sounds seem to draw a kind of strange observance. The music is always in constant movement, avoiding stops and giving no respite in its search for new beginnings."-Mikroton



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Alfredo Costa Monteiro was born in 1964 in Porto (Portugal)

Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.

He studied sculpture/installation at the fine art school in Paris with Christian Boltanski.In 1992, he moved to Barcelona. Since then, his work stands somewhere between visual arts, visual poetry and sound. His installations and sound pieces, all of a low-fi character, have in common an interest for unstable processes, raw materials and gestures, where the manipulation of objects as instruments or instruments as objects has a strong phenomenological aspect.

From 1998 to 2006, he was member of espai 22a, an independent collective for contemporary art. From 2001 to 2006, he was also member of IBA col.lectiu d'improvisació

In sound poetry, he performs in solo polyglot and noise pieces ( portuguese, french and spanish), where sound establishes a different semantics.

Ongoing sound projects: Cremaster (with Ferran Fages), i treni inerti (with Ruth Barberán), Atolón (with Ferran Fages and Ruth Barberán), Astero (with Juan Matos Capote), 300 basses (with Jonas Kocher and Luca Venitucci) and duos with Pascal Battus, Tim Olive and Michel Doneda.

He has given workshops at Hangar (Barcelona, Spain), ESDI (Barcelona, Spain), Janácek Academy of Music and Performing Arts (Brno, Czech Republic), Arteleku (San Sebastián, Spain), Facultad de Bellas Artes, (Pontevedra, Spain), ESAD (Caldas da Rainha, Portugal), Crossroads during John Cage's Year, (Lublin, Poland) among others.

He has toured in Canada, Japan and Europe."

-Alfredo Costa Monteiro Website (http://www.costamonteiro.net/index.php?/bio/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Miguel A. García (aka Xedh) from the Basque country, is one of the most dynamic sound artists in the Spanish scene. His work focuses mainly on the composition and electro-acoustic improvisation. He uses sounds taken from electronic devices residues, often interrelated with field recordings or acoustic instruments, in the search of an intimate, intense and immersive experience. A music of adventurous forms, full of contrasts and having nevertheless a sense of humor. His background comprises fine arts and audiovisual technology, having created projects such as Válvula Antirretorno, Baba Llaga or Mubles, questioning the borders between electro-acoustic academic music, industrial music and the so called outsider music.

With his solo project, he has participated in experimental music festivals all over Spain, as Ertz (Navarra), Experimentaclub (Madrid), Lem (Barcelona), Mem (Bilbao) or Sonikas (Vallecas), and he has played in diverse scenarios such as Auditorio Nacional de Música (Madrid), or museums such as Artium (Vitoria), Guggenheim (Bilbao), Macuf (A Coruña) or Vostell Malpartida (Cáceres). Outside Spain, he has played in festivals in Germany, Belgium, USA, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Portugal. His work has been released worldwide by labels as Copy for your records (USA), Homophoni (USA), Pilgrim Talk (USA), Slaughter Recs (Italy), Trait Central (USA), Triple Bath (Greece), Zeromoon (USA), or White Line (UK).

Still a young member of the international free improvisation scene, he works regularly with Ilia Belorukov, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Oier Iruretagoiena, Xabier Lopez, Alvaro Matilla, Seijiro Murayama or Hector Rey. He has collaborated with arists such Lali Barriere, Heddy Boubaker, Alexander Bruck, Raul Dominguez, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Richard Kamerman, Kurt Liedwart, Nick Hoffman, Wade Matthews, Jorge Nuñez, Carlos Suarez or Valentina Vuksic, and bands like Cooloola Monster, Gora Japon, maDam or Hamburguesa Vegetal. As a promoter, amongst other projects, is the founder of the Club Le Larraskito and director of the Zarata Fest, both platforms dedicated to the broadcast of challenging art and music."

-Miguel A. Garcia Website (XEDH.org) (http://www.xedh.org/about.html)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. No'j 11:04

2. Und 8:45

3. Toj 8:33

4. Sappnicran 9:59

Related Categories of Interest:


Electro-Acoustic
Sound, Noise, &c.
Duo Recordings
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Mikroton Recordings.


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