UNTITLED PHENOMENAS IN CONCRETE

CD, Cave12 records (CH), cardboard wall, with black & white A3 poster, 350 copies

Composed between 2008 and 2011, “Untitled Phenomenas In Concrete” is a piece made out of 85 HighC/UPIC* sessions and 18 external sounds (recordings of snow falling, bones cracking, magnetic fields and insects).

*UPIC is a computerised musical composition tool, devised by the composer Iannis Xenakis. It consists of a digitising tablet linked to a computer, which has a vector display.

Interested by Xenakis’ approach and wanting to draw the sound before hearing it, I spent nearly four years composing/drawing line by line “Untitled Phenomenas In Concrete”, listening to every line, gradually adding on lines and sounds, erasing, reassembling, gathering and discreetly weaving recorded sounds into the piece to “humanise” the whole. As a final touch, the piece was transferred and mastered on reel-to-reel tape to add some warmth to the cold digital processing of the UPIC.

Assembled and mastered by Francisco Meirino at Shiver Mobile, Lausanne, Switzerland, between 2008 and 2012. Produced by cave12, Geneva. Distributed by Metamkine. With help from la Ville de Lausanne et des affaires culturelles de l’Etat de Vaud Cover design by Eva Rittmeyer & Xavier Robel.

R E V I E W S

In Neural

This album utilizes 85 sessions of hybrid “audio paint” system HighC/UPIC and field recordings of fallen snow, breaking bones, magnetic filed and insects. The system is a structural model of additive colour inspired by the UPIC works of Iannis Xenakis that date back to the late seventies . Francesco Meirino is not new to dealing with software and his work mostly involves computers, magnetic field detectors, reel-to-reel recorders, piezolectric transducers and various other acoustic devices. In Untitled Phenomenas In Concrete Meirino re-focuses on the concept of sound design; an approach in which he composes, edits and assembles elementary sound objects and molds structures – while being careful to realize a performance that is somehow “aesthetic”. An additional intervention in post-production consisted of transferring and re-mastering the entire work on a reel-to-reel tape, in order to add a sense of analogue warmth to the cold digital feel of the UPIC treatment. This whole process proved to be quite challenging and Meirino invested four years (2008-12) to “close” his research. The sense of synesthesia created by the recordings is magically rewoven, with iterations able to transform objects made of bits into more physical representations (and the other way around too). The listening here is always lively and richly nuanced, and although the external sound elements only number eighteen the composer has managed to create a progressive continuum of thirty-minutes.

(Aurelio Cianciotta)

In Chain D.L.K.

It seems that the high rate of dumping factor, let's say so, is intentional in Francisco Meirino's sonic research as according to the one who wrote his biography his music primarily "explores the tension between programmable material and the potential for its failure" and this operating procedures permeate this release, where you could imagine an astonishing electromechanical prototypical marvel which fails the test just some instant after it gives the impression it's going to to work well! It could be a wise way to gibe its own skills as I'm pretty sure Francisco knows them quite well. More than 150 live performances in many venues in Europe, Japan and North America and a plenty of collaborations and commissioned releases are enough to validate them. During the listening of Meirino's work, you could easily imagine a supercar with the highest technological content which ridiculously fails the first test for a punctured tire! It's not a negative criticism at all, as I reallt like those skilled musicians which manages to add some funny provocative hints in their artworks! Those abstract lines on black background on the cover artwork refers to the compositional process, which has been used for "Untitled Phenomenas in Concrete", as Francisco fed 85 HighC/UPIC sessions with a set of 18 external sounds (recordings of bones cracking, snow falling, electro-static noises, oscillators, gear failures, magnetic fields and insects!) by means of a device (UPIC) developed by Iannis Xenakis, which gave the possibility to create sounds from drawings on a sort of primordial tablet. I'm not surprised Francisco spent nearly four years to achieve a satisfying result, which arguably manages to reinvent the glitch logic within electroacoustic composition.

In Revue & Corrigée

Les nouvelles choses de Francisco Meirino défrichent également des territoires stupéfiants, que ce soit dans A while and awhile, mais surtout dans Untitled phenomenas in concrete, où il utilise un logiciel (High-C) qui reprend l'idée de la machine UPIC inventée par Iannis Xenakis, celle de dessiner les sons et leur(s) composition(s) - et donc de partir dans (ou plutôt depuis) une abstraction sonore plus grande. ce qu'il en fait est juste grandiose, et n'a pas grand chose à envier à (mais non plus à voir avec) la musique de Xenakis. De l'art de faire des disques étonnants et qui, plus important encore, paraissent (ou sont?) importants.

(KTT)

In Vital Weekly

Now here's someone whose work I find more and more interesting. When he was still active as Phroq it was alright, I guess, but not as outstanding. Since he worked under his own name his work is very good. I am not sure why that is, but I guess it is what it is. His latest piece was recorded over a period of four years and uses 85 HighC/UPIC sessions and 18 external sounds, such as snow falling, bones cracking, magnetic fields and insects. The UPIC is 'a computerised musical composition tool, devised by the composer Iannis Xenakis. It consists of a digitising tablet linked to a computer which has a vector display'. Meirino spend four years of drawing and composing, ultimately putting this stuff down to a reel-to-reel tape to get some more warmth out of the music. This pieces lasts thirty six minutes, divided in various parts, all of it of an extreme musical nature. This is music that is quite 'loud' most of the times, but surely 'loud' but not without a thought behind it, nor without sense of a fine composition. Things that I find usually lacking in the world of power electronics and harsh noise. Meirino proofs you can have extreme music that is still detailed, very dynamic (which doesn't equal 'loud', mind you), in which something always seems to be on the move somewhere. Also there seems to be some instruments being used, percussive ones, around the four minute break, which I though added a nice extra layer to this heavy electronic music. It's something which I thought Meirino should explore more too in the future. It makes that I think this is one of his most accomplished works to date. An excellent manifestation of intelligent noise. (FdW)

In Le Courrier

Comment passe-t-on du rock au noise? En réalisant qu’on est moins captivé par sa guitare que par ses pédales d’effets! L’explication, soufflée par Thibault Walter, l’un des deux directeurs du LUFF qui bat son plein à Lausanne, en vaut une autre. Elle rejoint en tout cas le vécu de Francisco Meirino, ancien musicien de pop/rock lausannois passé depuis plus de quinze ans au bruitisme – et qui se produit justement ce samedi au LUFF. Son travail est d’une précision pointilliste, loin des déferlantes de bruit blanc propres à certains artistes emblématiques de la discipline (Masonna, Merzbow, Whitehouse), encore qu’il en soit parfaitement capable. Le propos d’Untitled Phenomenas In Concrete, nouvel ajout au catalogue du label Cave 12, réside dans le soin extrême apporté au détail de cette pièce de 36 minutes 44 secondes. Francisco Meirino a assemblé 85 sessions réalisées entre 2008 et 2011 sur l’UPIC, un outil de composition assisté par ordinateur utilisant la synthèse graphique, mis au point dans les années 1970 par Iannis Xenakis. Le résultat de cette démarche associant croquis et musique a ensuite été agrémenté de sons externes (enregistrements de neige qui tombe, de craquements d’os, de champs magnétiques et d’insectes). L’immersion dans ces crépitements, cliquetis et ronflements n’est pas nécessairement aisée, mais elle révèle des agencements formels et des sonorités d’une grande richesse. L’oreille en ressort plus intelligente. RODERIC MOUNIR

In Blog de Monsier Délire

Le compositeur-électronicien suisse Francisco Meirino propose, avec cette œuvre, un retour sur le système UPIC de Xenakis, qui permettait de traduire en données sonores vectorielles des traits de crayon sur une tablette numérique. Untitled Phenomenas in Concrete est constituée de 85 séances de dessin et 18 enregistrements de terrain. L’œuvre, présentée d’un seul trait (35 minutes), s’apparente à l’acousmatique française, avec un côté plus imprévisible. Une musique fignolée, dont les contrastes font réfléchir sur la manière du compositeur. Une œuvre consistante

Various extracts of the HighC/UPIC sessions used on the record