Alfredo Costa Monteiro

costamonteiro[at]yahoo[dot]fr

isotopic

 

Cremaster is the Barcelona-based duo of Ferran Fages (feedback mixing board, electro-acoustic devices) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (objects on electric guitar, electro-acoustic devices). The two have been working together since 2000, reconnoitering the junctures of brash, laminous cacophony and acutely attuned listening. Over the last few years, the duo have started to explore the interfaces of their electro-acoustic approach with acoustic instruments; first with violinist Angharad Davies (documented on the strong recording Pluie Fine on the Potlatch label) and then with pianist Sophie Agnel, captured on this Confront recording Isotopic. For both projects, Fages and Costa Monteiro and their collaborators recorded parts separately, trading them back and forth and assembling them in the studio after a period of collective assimilation. For their collaboration with Agnel, the three recorded their parts over the course of 2009-2011, finally assembling things in the studio in March of 2012 and, in listening, one can imagine the expansive process of recording, listening, layering, and remixing as the music unfolds.

Bill Shoemaker, Moment’s notice