ígneo

Alfredo Costa Monteiro (objects on electric guitar electronics) and Ferran Fages (feedback mixing board, electromagnetic devices, radios, pick-ups) provide 20 minutes of fine, erm, sizzle. For much of the set, there’s something of dialogue between pinging, high, near consonant tones (presumably guitar-sourced) and skittering explosions of harsh noise. Those tones cast something of a romantic shimmer over the music, almost Gothic; there are moments when one could easily see this being used as a (very effective) horror film soundtrack. Focus is held right along this line throughout, which is a fine strategy, allowing the listener to construct a relatively stable framework from which to appreciate the subtler elements that unspool minute by minute, the wavering timbres of the ringing tones, the odd subsonic throb, bird-like twitters, the juicy textural contrast between the general output of the two musicians, etc. Fages’ (I’m assuming it’s he) burst of noise strike me as very Roweian in character, possessing the proper degree of harshness to offset the plaintive aspect of Costa Monteiro’s guitar. That yin/yang is present throughout makes for a good, substantial listen though it might also be said to provide something of a safety night. In this case, I think it works very well though, ideally, I might have liked an additional 20 minutes where they went for broke.

Brian Olewnick, Just outside