noranta graus a l’esquerra

It’s been a while since Ferran Fages («feedback mixing board, pick-ups») and Alfredo Costa Monteiro («objects on electric guitar») graced us with a Cremaster album – was the last one really as long ago as 2003? (Infra, on Antifrost) – but these four splendid slabs of raw electronic power and howling feedback, recorded between 2004 and last year and hammered into shape this summer, are solid proof that they haven’t lost their touch. Where to draw the line between Noise and EAI is a question that’s preoccupied many of us for a while now, and recent outings by the likes of Carlos Giffoni and John Wiese are making it ever harder to answer; Cremaster discs usually get filed away under «EAI» – though not in my house, where they sit in a teetering pile of things loosely referred to as «electronica» – but there’s no reason why these lads shouldn’t be tearing it up at No Fun next year. Listening, Carlos? Check it out!
Dan Warburton [Paris Transatlantic, 12.2009]

Cremaster once again offer us the finest in Spanish minimal improvised noise, this time using feedback, pickups and something akin to a prepared guitar on Noranta Graus A L’Esquerra. The duo of Ferran Fages and Alfredo Costa Monteiro have impressed us in the past with their all-acoustic records of rumbling and rattling made using creaky junk and broken instruments, and some of the same distinctive non-aesthetic applies here. One long musical escapade is divided into four digestible chunks of discombobulated wheezy moanage.
Ed Pinsent [The Sound Projector, 13.12.2009]

‘Ferran Fages: feedback mixing board, pick-ups-Alfredo Costa Monteiro: objects on electric guitar’ – @ which the address below can be found mp3s but for the lazy it would be difficult to guess a guitar was involved, high pitched noise and feedback mainly staccato sounds recorded over a four year period- another attempt at research (into – about?) noise, which one could take issue with, but the offering here is well produced and surprisingly delicate, maybe the long gestation period accounts for such intricacy of form. Which generates the question regarding the idea of noise research, as noise can be – and is – defined as the detritus of existence (and or culture), not its careful constructs, so this work falls more in line with the genre of modernist avant-gardism than the flagrant ignoring of culture of the more recent work of others. Even the harsher sections are carefully located like jewelry manufactured from junk and found objects.
jliat [Vital Weekly, #710, 22.12.2009]

Super-crunchy goodness. Ferran Fages (feedback mixing board, pick-ups) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (objects on electric guitar) return after something of an absence to assault our otic orifices with a fierce barrage of noise, channeled superbly, hurtling past our heads faster than we can hear. «90 degrees to the left», full throttle. I found myself wondering where the line is (if it is) between this and the extreme noise scene. I imagine the control evinced here might be offputting to some immersed in that area but for me, it molds the noise beautifully, allowing the torrents to surge, just installing banks and curbs that, if anything, cause the music to sound even more powerful, become more of a juggernaut. Fine, ear-scouring work. Get it.
Brian Olewnick [Just Outside, 02.01.2010]