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Dion Workman / Mattin: S3 CD
The label Antifrost already released an album by this duo in the past
entitled Via vespucci. Now it's time for San Francisco-based Formed
Records to present the next co-operation of these two compelling sound
artists.
S3 is an album in which static noise plays the key-role. Some parts sound
like digital rain, whereas other moments remind of distant noise from a
motorway.
It's the detail that counts here, the minimal ultra high-pitched tones
that have been added from time to time, or the hardly noticeable rumbling
in the background. The music slowly gets more active, as if it's
approaching. And the moment it's gone, one notices what was there.
These two composers play with your perception, presenting something so
fine, minimal and different from other music (sources), that it makes you
start thinking about how one perceives sound and how the brain works in
this process. Extreme intruiging and compelling.
mattin@mattin.org
www.mattin.org
dion@tinynumbers.com
mail@formedrecords.com
www.formedrecords.com
Touching Extremes
DION WORKMAN / MATTIN - S3 (Formed <http://www.formedrecords.com/>)
Completely conceived on Workman and Mattin's laptops, "S3" is one of
those albums where you have to think twice before using the term
"music", as this stuff sounds more like the silent core of a nuclear
reaction, sound particles and hissing noises remaining at the basis of
the piece throughout its duration, together with deep silence. The
evolution of the single movement on which the record is based is
designed with remarkable restraint; many of its mechanisms are barely
audible, even when listening by headphones. The abused definition of
"human element" is rendered completely useless, since the dynamics of
the duo allow no room to interpretation of gestures or translation of
codes. It's all there: the faint light of an unidentified object in a
dark room, glowing but not enough to help finding the out door; the
impressive subdural vibration that ends the album, leaving us in the
freezing wind of our ignorance of many acoustic phenomena. Merry
melodies have no future. Massimo Ricci
Dion Workman/Mattin
S3
Formed Records
101
An eely one, to be sure. “S3” is a single piece, 41-minute
collaboration that subtly plays with conventions of eai, presenting the
listener with a steady-state approach that implies elements that never
appear and offers unexpected ones in odd places in the structure. It
begins with about 10 minutes of extremely quiet noise. Not only quiet
but pitched at the sort of frequencies that are likely to be present in
one’s listening room, that is if the computer, lights, heaters, etc.
are active and functioning. Personally, my PC’s hum was often co-equal
with much of this section, making for a very enjoyable little “dilemma”
trying to figure out what, if anything, I was hearing from the disc.
Oddly, at other times, I could pick out the joint low burbling and
supersonic bat-squeaks with relative ease; maybe it depended which way
my head was tilted. After this interval, the volume is upped a notch,
“S3” emitting whispery rubbings and ethereal whistles, a somewhat more
voluminous rumble beginning to emerge underneath. Just when you think
you’ve gotten the arc of the piece down, expecting it to wax into a
prolonged eruption, it up and slaps you with only a brief flare,
descending back into a low, menacing throb. From this point, about the
halfway mark, “S3” sputters and thrums in more erratic fashion, like a
cast-aside firework with a dysfunctional fuse. It’s a little
disquieting, a little tough (for me) to immediately grasp the
structural logic but, at the same time, there’s a basic solidity that
makes itself felt, providing just enough tug to tow the listener along.
The volume only ever rises to medium levels; the onslaught I imagined
coming never really arrives—another very nice non-event. About 30
minutes in, after a soft blast of unique static, the piece reverts to,
more or less, the initial state, flickering on the edge of audible
distinguishability. For myself, “S3” is the sort of work that, first
time through, is very difficult to get my aural arms around but that,
on successive listens, reveals more and more about its structure,
allowing great appreciation for the placement of sound elements. (Among
other things, it makes me want to hear a recording of the
Workman/Julien Ottavi set from this last autumn’s ErstQuake fest,
wondering if it would reveal more on re-listen). It still retains a
kind of gaseous quality and that’s all to the good yet you can begin to
detect glimmers of outlines, enough to provide a certain amount
of…comfort. It’s a complex project and an excellent one.
Signal to Noise, n42, 2006, U.S.A.
Jon Dale
"Mattin seek out the extremities of the sound spectrum, revelling in
both the loud abrasions and minute particulars of his laptop. He´s
comfortable in fiery duet with throat noise gargler Junko and he is
with the reduced, poised improvisations of Radu Malfatti; furthermore,
in certain contexts Mattin acts up, pushing his collaborators out of
their comfort zones or needling away at them provocatively. His second
duo release with New Zealand expat Dion Workman, S3, proves what a
good fit the pair is: though the recording doesn´t plough
significantly new or different to their previous encounter, it is an
arresting listen. Both artists are sensitive to both the physical and
intellectual properties of their lexicon: they glide across high-
pitched trills, weave avacuated shudders of white noise into
comparatively rich patches of electronic heat, or allow coalblack low
end-end to roll out of the speakers like a diseased wreath.
============
VITAL WEEKLY
============
number 506
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week 52
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DION WORKMAN & MATTIN - S3 (CD by
Formed.Records)
Both Dion Workman and Mattin belong to the most radical music
composers the world has to offer. Mattin for his loud, computerized
noise and Workman for his radical sine wave/feedback compositions
that are usually quite ear-piercing. This is not the first time
that they work together. They released a mini-CD 'Via Vespucci'
on Antifrost before (see Vital Weekly 451). You can't blame me,
but I had my volume way down, expecting some nuclear noise blast
to come from my speakers. I sank back in my chair awaiting what
was to come. Waited. Ah the inaudible intro of some time, maybe
minutes, before things were to take off. Waited some more. Maybe
it is a good idea to crank up the volume just a little bit? It
is. It is indeed. The volume goes all the way up on the remote
control and even some adjustment on the amplifier. All this fiddling
with volume knobs distracted from the music, but was there any
music on this CD. Did in the past forty minutes I hear anything?
In the second time around, having cranked up the volume all the
way up, things become clearer. Workman and Mattin enter the world
of Francisco Lopez, using silence to great length but when music
arises then it's usually along their own sound palettes - gritty
noise, but played softly and feedback, but played softly. There
are moments, or rather blocks when this all comes alive and well,
before it sinks back into low end hum and then into a sea of silence.
Maybe the use of silence of something that is a bit too Lopezian,
but Workman and Mattin have done a real fine job in creating something
that is equally disturbing as much of their previous work (Mattin's
singing and acoustic guitar playing from last week springs to
mind), in very much similar extreme areas, but using a 180 degrees
opposite working method. It's music you can easily ignore when
not paying attention, and if that is your usual listening habit,
I'd say don't touch this release. If you are willing to spare
it lots of time, then put it on repeat and a reasonable volume
for half a day or so. (FdW)
Address: http://www.formedrecords.com
discography
w.m.o/record label
desetxea net label
www.mattin.org