SHATTERED REEL(M)S
CD Ed. 200 copies, comes in a 4 panels digisleeve with full-colour artwork, released by Sentimental Productions.
CD ed. available directly on my Bandcamp page
Also available as a limited (30 copies) artist boxset that includes a 17x17x4 cm woodbox that holds the regular CD
and also the full album on a reel tape (7' four track stereo)
+ signed card + one of original 30 tape loops used to make the album.
«a desperate act of randomness» the tape recorder’s on/off switch «am I lying to myself ?» «wings on the pavement» «put your ear against the wall» «can you hear them crying ?» «remember me to push you away» «escape the making of the world» another short percussive pattern «he walks, greeting my fall» tiny bells «I hate glass» a rumble crush - carbonic acid «I am nothing» a drone - a rusty motor - a fly - resonance feedback «there is nothing here» the sound of a typewriter «an insane path» «come closer» «almost empty» a percussive pattern «the effect of fear» «become breath» «the tyranny of structure» rolling & rolling.
Francisco Meirino: 30 reel tape loops, tape echo, reel-to-reel tape recorder,
modular synthesizer, piano, percussions, resonator guitar, violin, voice, field recorder, computer.
Recorded, assembled, and mastered in 2020 by Francisco Meirino at Shiver Mobile.
Artwork and layout by Edward Sol
REVIEWS
FRANCISCO MEIRINO - SHATTERED REEL(M)S (CD by Sentimental Productions)
The new release by Switzerland's Francisco Meirino comes in two editions. One is a standard CD, and the other is the CD housed in a wooden box, plus the album on a reel-to-reel machine, plus one of the thirty tape-loops in the production of the music. I got one of those; maybe my recent love for old reel machines didn't go unnoticed? Next to the thirty loops, Meirino uses a lot more, a list of which reads like poetry; a tiny bell, a rumble crus carbonic acid, a drone, a rusty motor etc. There is also a less poetic list, "30 tape loops, tape echo, reel-to-reel tape recorder, modular synthesizer, piano, percussions, resonator guitar, violin, voice, field recorder and computer.
Meirino uses the faulty lines of equipment as an additional 'instrument' or 'sound processing tool' for his music. It is smooth, he's not likely to use it, so it seems. That said, the four pieces on 'Shattered Reel(m)s' are surprisingly 'smooth', by Meirino's standards. His music is to be found in the world of musique concrète, the modern variant. A version that concerns itself less with granular synthesis, the glissandi of changes pitches, but rather with a noisier version of sound processing and cruder editing, cutting technique. Rusty scissors rather than demagnetized editing razorblades (if you know, you know, and otherwise download Terence Dwyer's "Composing with Tape Recorders Musique Concrete for Beginners", easily found online).
In Meirino's world, the result is the central point, and there is nothing else but the music at hand. There is no bigger idea, political thought, just what you hear, and something, at least, so I believe one could judge only in aesthetic terms. Do you like what you hear or not? If this kind of music is not something you heard a lot in your life, then you may reject it; I doubt, however, that you'd be subscribed to Vital Weekly. I enjoy this music a lot. There is some excellent brutal force within this music, especially in 'Part Four', but with the scattered tones of the piano and percussion, Meirino allows for some refined tones. Maybe he's older and wiser and tones down? Who knows? Great package! (FdW)