The Sound Art of Matthew Burnter

http://www.psychemusic.org/SoundArt.html#anchor_747

SOUND ART, ART WITH "SOUND" and ENVIRONMENT review page Matthew Burntner ('08) V.A.: "Agents Against Agency" ('11) & V.A.: "MICE Worl Tour" ('10) Mikhail Karikis & Uriel Orlow ('12)

Eco Sono

Dustin Thompson / Matthew Burtner : Signal Ruins -dvd-(US,2008)***'

The largest section on this DVD shows some new music compositions from a live performance in a few different sections. It partly sounds improvised, interactive with the prepared and sheet music ideas, roughly as play with tension, sound gravity and soft greying noise even though there is use of rhythms in the early section, this works like this, as an interactive sound form. The DVD starts with visually interesting graphics, turning from the introduction into a focus onto the live performance which are visually mixed with the readings of the music sheets passing by. Once overcome by the surprise, not many more graphic elements are added, which gives more focus to the music which at first hearing might work a bit more sleepilly of remaining into one sort of focus and vibration pretty long, a more thorough and prepared second viewing can distiguish a bit more through the audible elements mostly. Theres an interesting instrumental use of the piano in the next section, where the musicians are using a wire around some piano strings, pull the string in certain countable rhythmic proportions, producing with this a slightly accelerating tone of the string. Further on I also liked the visual idea where the middle of the total image view changed with the shape of what to a degree still sounds like an electronic wave. This is a nicely senseblending visualisation of the produced sounds, which makes the totality experience when watching this more perfect. On this section waves of sounds are produced and subtle white noise is added. But some of the white noise was produced simply by a brush, and the peeping tones were not electronic either, but were the playing of the loosely attached wires onto the piano.
The first bonus track, Prismic Generations has at first the camera focused somewhere in between a macroscopic and microscopic level, showing water slowly falling down from a glass plate or perhaps car window, the sun shining in. This image changes a bit in the reflection as if a river can be seen in the slightly oiled stream, elsewhere the camera focus changes smoothly onto the light reflections being present. Although all this is not totally agreeable with the music it is nice to watch. The music consists of overtone series, peeping rhythms and rather natural, insect-like background electronic pulses. The second bonus track with audio only and just one rather nicely fitting static abstract image (-what more does it need, some moving images that dont fit too well would be more disturbing than this-), you

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The Sound Art of Matthew Burnter

http://www.psychemusic.org/SoundArt.html#anchor_747

(Sound Poetry) or go back to progr/psych music index

or go back to general music index

in general. The music has a dramatic, colleagues-uniting core of vocal harmonies, and a deep melody that unites this even more and also, the sounds of the mines themselves, the drills, the machines, the breathing pressures, the sweat, the physical power, all expressed by vocals only, put beautifully into video not missing each possible detail, like the hands that experienced before what they express here as a conclusion. Apparently this over 7 minute-track is all that has been recorded, but we also get a book with it with some essays. It confirms how much the miners dug from their memories the right association to articulate the essence of all their experience. The result became so powerful because so much of personal and group histories became united into one moment. This is intense and real. Just remember also the formation of the miners union, the breaking down of their livelyhood at the time of Tatchers rule and the consequences to the mining community. In just a few minutes of music, just by the power of the singing and the look on their faces we know we are dealing with people here that became abandoned like the coal landscapes, their integrity of voice remained intact. Just see the release as an artwork, an expression of history. Powerful. Recommended ! Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJEcA3rUOnM Label info : http://subrosa.itcmedia.net/... Distro info : http://dense.de/news.html#mikhaildvd Film maker page : http://www.urielorlow.net/2010/07/sounds-from-beneath/ Homepage Mikhail :http://www.mikhailmusic.com About "Xenon" : http://www.mikhailkarikis.blogspot.com/ The CD album by Mikhail with the inclusion of this track reviewed on next page
happy melody on keyboards with human whistling, de-attached from the situation, but like one with pleasure of having done this project, as a matter of speaking this is just like mice watching from behind the scenes and describing the performers fun with a happy tune. One of the things you can see are the participants dancing in the sand like on an after-project party, but these persons are actually experiencing the rhythm of the sand in a different way than with your fingers this time while stamping the ground. Yuri Spitsyns project is a different sort of interaction than the first examples, but created with the same curiosity and mentality. He sets up an interaction with the sounds of the machine making these electromagnetic sounds audible, while opening and using a laptop. Lots of slightly annoying but ever changing electro-acoustic noise and rhythms can be heard here. It is a sonic investigation of the machine showing well-fitting image/sound interaction. Matthew Burners contribution showing less of the nature, is something more of improvised free music with saxophones with some variations in sounds by dissembling the instrument and recording from inside. Visually, from one to four different video recordings screenings are combined on one screen. This visual aspect works a little nervously. I would have preferred something more technically advanced with this. It confirms mostly the intellectual or thought idea behind it, something that only becomes more clear when reading about these ideas. So in this case the environment itself is secondary used. The composition/improvisation consists of horn harmonies and electro-acoustic rhythm patterns. On the Burns/Dinnells track I hear electro-acoustic music, like machine-like white noise and grey noise and descending beeping noise movement. With this I see black and white night visions of moving clouds., mixed with a kind of bar code-alike image distortion and in the end some early morning images of the sea. This works pretty much like a thoughtful electro-acoustic soundtrack video-clip. The group Pinko Communoids play an improvisation in nature with the camera filming from a certain distance. It is a pure audible experience (and awareness). Not much happens either but it is a nice listen (bowls, bells, accordion, bowed guitar). Also 12 Dog Cycle/Hall is an improvisation, of voice (imitating the resonances of the sax slightly), sax, and accordion, recorded outside, inside an open stone army fort. Like often with free improvisation, it fits ok with the environment all right but it also does not do anything with it. Also this is a nice listen, in two parts, carefully hanging around one note, fitting well, but not necessarily contributing anything extra on the visual level. Its again like a music clip.

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The Sound Art of Matthew Burnter

http://www.psychemusic.org/SoundArt.html#anchor_747

MICE/Emergence (with e.i. Matthew Burtner) has a second contribution from their Interactive Research Group. It was a past project which stated please match the rhythm of your neighbour, a nice to listen to, -with surprising details in the evolution-, interactive composition with a whole auditorium of (some 250) PCs.

Label info : http://ecosono.com/EcoSono_agents.html & http://ecosono.com/EcoSono_media.html Article : http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/sounds-heard-ecosono-agents-against-agency/ Aaron Henderson : http://www.aaronhenderson.com/dvd-artists-against-agency/ Steven Kemper : http://people.virginia.edu/~stk8m/Drum_Circle.html CD->

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