A "document of sonic purging" from New York sound artists Merche Blasco and Gryphon Rue, a combination of compositions and electroacoustic improvisation using an unusual collection of instruments--EMS Synthi AKS, modular synth chain, harmonium, voice, percussion and musical saw--applied through diverse approaches to create inspired landscapes and curious constructions.
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Merche Blasco-EMS Synthi AKS, saw, voice
Gryphon Rue-modular synth chain, saw, harmonium, voice, percussion
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Label: Astral Editions
Catalog ID: AE012CS
Squidco Product Code: 30273
Format: CASSETTE
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Cassette
Recorded in Crown Heights & Cleft Ridge Span, Prospect Park, during the Summer of 2020.
"Music for constructing a new localized reality, North Of The Future is a document of sonic purging by Gryphon Rue and Merche Blasco, recorded under conditions of straitjacketed stasis and thick idle air. Seeded in a deep yearning to sound together and disrupt the external circumstances, the collection charts non-idiomatic improvisations bound to deformations of time and place.
The shimmering "Super Tender" introduces us to North Of The Future's entrancing sound worlds, equal parts elegy, experiment, and sonic prism capturing 2020's wake. North Of The Future is a homebound duet between Rue and Blasco with instrumental interlocutors. The scarcely governable voice of Blasco's EMS Synthi AKS ("Cintia") and her singing saw entangle signals with Rue's singing saw, harmonium, and custom modular synths ("Fritz"). A rare model from 1972, Cintia's frayed circuitry gives the synth a special character - she interjects, digresses, changes the conversation. Ffffffffffff. Zeeeeerrrrt. Pft Pfa Pfta. At times in the music Cintia's temperament is directly invoked: the comedic squeals which burst forth from the droning opening chords of "Cintia On Fritz" were elicited by rolling an orange up and down Cintia's conductive keyboard. These human-like sounds are reinforced by the voices of the saws calling across the album.
Rue and Blasco spent late July, August, and early September 2020 recording before Blasco absconded on a research fellowship to Berlin. The artists continued composing the material and editing remotely in a sculpting process. Prior to bidding each other farewell, the duo met under the Cleft Ridge archway in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Brandishing their saws, they recorded 40.65°N -73.96°W in the early morning, mimicking one another and passersby under the resonating plates of the arch, the oldest of its kind in the country. During the winter, Rue collaged the album's cover in a visual translation of the colorful sonic structures and feeling of North Of The Future. "-Astral Editions
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Merche Blasco "Merche Blasco is a multimedia artist and composer based in New York. She designs and builds imprecise technological assemblages that catalyze embodied forms of live electroacoustic composition and new modes of listening. Through her constructed devices, Blasco attempts to establish a more horizontal relationship with other entities, distancing herself from parameters of precision, power, and control. As an alternative form of performance, she engineers collaborative spaces with instruments that are given their own agency, in compositions where her body and the live exploration of organic materials are central elements. She has presented her performances and installations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Sonar Festival in Barcelona, La Biennale di Venezia, NIME conferences, Tsonami International Sound Art Festival in Chile, The High Line in New York, SONIC Festival, Mapping Festival (Geneva), Queens Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Chile, among others. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Wire magazine. Blasco is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in music composition at New York University (GSAS)." ^ Hide Bio for Merche Blasco • Show Bio for Gryphon Rue "Gryphon Rue is an artist, composer, and curator working across disciplines. Rue performs in the audiovisual project Rue Bainbridge and in duo with sound artist Merche Blasco. Organizes exhibitions and events at D R O N E, an arts center located in Tribeca, New York City. Hosts Earmark on Montez Press Radio. Composer/editor of Strange Attractor (pub. Inventory Press & Ballroom Marfa). Films are distributed by The Film-Makers' Cooperative. Recent projects: North Of The Future (cassette & digital album) with Merche Blasco (Astral Editions, 2021); The Location of Serenity, D R O N E, New York (May 7-July 10); Clayton Patterson: Beauty Mark, a photomontage exploring the complexity, eccentricity and diversity of NYC's Lower East Side, Printed Matter/St Marks, March 10-April 25); Rue Bainbridge: Wintering, a performance streamed by de Young Museum (April 7). Works internationally. Based in Brooklyn, NY." ^ Hide Bio for Gryphon Rue
5/8/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
5/8/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
SIDE A
1. Super Tender 03:50
2. Moving Veins of Flamingos 03:18
3. Frogsayings 04:08
4. Cintia on Fritz 02:50
5. Longitude 07:24
SIDE B
1. Beautiful Evidence 06:00
2. 40.65N - 73.96W 07:07
3. North of the Future 02:37
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