FIVE YEARS OF WORK FOR A STRANGE RESULT with Brent Gutzeit
CD, Trust Lost (USA), digipak, Ltd 300
After getting to know Brent Gutzeit’s work by accident and five years of sounds exchange later, this cd finally got released. Brent's sharp'n'disturbing trademark goes strangely well with my static electroacoustic broken gear's mayhem.
Tracklisting
1 –Brent Gutzeit Intoxication Of Perfect Existences 1:49
2 –Francisco Meirino A Bruised Happy Face 3:11
3 –Brent Gutzeit Nothing But Contradictions 4:37
4 –Francisco Meirino Buzzing Content 8:21
5 –Brent Gutzeit An Insistence On Familiarity 2:51
6 –Francisco Meirino Dramatic Alarm Song 3:04
7 –Brent Gutzeit My Worst Enemy Is Tomorrow 4:10
8 –Francisco Meirino Stress Test For Depression 8:52
9 –Brent Gutzeit I MissedSomething During Those Years 11:00
10 –Francisco Meirino The Static Hangover 11:08
R E V I E W S
Insound
This five year mail-collaboration brings together veteran sound artists Francisco Meirino, better known as PHROQ and Brent Gutzeit, a member of TV Pow. These artists compose bleak melancholic soundtracks using field recordings, electronics and noise. More music concrete than harsh noise, this release would fit in more closely with Luc Ferrari than Merzbow.
Neural
Flawlessly integrated in this project - the result of five years of collaboration - are the broken electro-acoustic frequencies of Francisco Meirino and the drones and highly sensitive, intense pulses of Brent Gutzeit. These are two experimenters very familiar with dynamic digital jumps and unconventional sound research. The former is well-known for his interesting releases under the moniker Phroq, while the latter is a specialist of elegant noisy caesuras, very versatile and still active in TV Pow, a laptop trio, a combo which also includes Todd A. Carter and Michael Hartman. In this release it is not always easy to determine the moments when one or other audio-artist assumes control, whether the ruptures are the result of light beats or the opposite, but this matters little in the overall economy of the ten different tracks, which are juxtaposed in a hyper-vivid continuum, never dull, sometimes melancholic, whispering and highly imaginative. There are also field recordings between the grooves (never predominant in the sequences) that have been heavily processed and combine to express a collage of very refined and intriguing sounds. (Aurelio Cianciotta)
Paris Transatlantic
The self-explanatory title indicates the lengthy data-swapping process at the basis of this work, showcasing the combined skills of two sound artists whose past achievements (notably Meirino's excellent works as Phroq and Gutzeit's fantastic Drugmoney) guarantee good taste. Painstakingly constructed, fragmented and reassembled, the innumerable frequencies generated by this perfect pair spread across the whole spectrum of audibility, and beyond (careful with your pets). Earthquake-like vibrations are perceived as subliminal messages of wondrous threat, as hordes of squirrels are spindried at impossible speed by a nuclear washing machine and sandblasted by ferocious discharges of filthy electricity. Shifting panning, penetrating munchkin squeals, distant drones and crumbling edifices transposed six octaves down are but a few of the treats on offer. Occasionally disturbed by snippets of humanoid voices, and replete with moments of exhilarating tension scientifically alternated with nearly absurdist abstract intermissions, this one deserves an awful lot of replays.(MR)
Vital Weekly
Its been a while since I last heard music by Brent Gutzeit, formerly (?) of TV Pow, but also with some solo albums to his name, which I didn't all hear. Meirino, formerly known as Phroq, is perhaps more active, or perhaps more of his music lands on my desk. He's one of the more interesting composers that go beyond playing 'just' noise: he composes with the notion of noise in his mind, but adds balance to it. Not just an onslaught of loud sounds without much depth, but also adding more dynamics and at times something 'soft'. There is always an element of subtleness in his music. Gutzeit proved to be a master of more sustaining, droning pieces of music, so let's see what five years of exchanging audio data brings us.
Its probably not easy to say who does what here, and perhaps I haven't got all the insight to say something about it, but this seems to me more an album of Meirino playing around with the sound input from Gutzeit then vice versa. There is a fair amount of drone like soundsto be found in these pieces for sure, there is no mistake to be made there, but there is also a (greater) amount of noisy injections to be found here, which I assume as Meirino's work. Heavily computer based in its methods of processing, the ten pieces make pretty strong collages of sound. Things buzz around on end, and there is always that low flying engine bass sound to be spotted, that will rip your speakers apart.
A highly dynamic set of music, that, clocking in at almost an hour will never bore the listener for a single second. A strange buzzing and ringing sound will remain long after this is over. (FdW)