Slices of Life
by Mattin & Asha Sheshadri
Published by Edition Erich Schmid and Mille Plateaux
During the 22nd of February 2022, two years after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we took audio snippets from our everyday lives documenting our homes and surrounding urban environments, our intellectual interests and our musical tastes. We also gathered pictures with our phones. Some of the audio sources were processed, some were not.
Here you get slices of our lives from two different cities, New York and Berlin – a glimpse of the fragmentation of our times through a broken sonic diary entry.
credits
released November 14, 2023
Mastered by Mattin
Thanks to Eric Schmid and Montez Press Radio
Anti-Copyright
Best of the year 2023:
The Wire Magazine January / February 2024 (Issue 479 + 480)
Selected by Raymond Cummings as one of the ten best records on Noise, Industrial & Beyond of 2023
1 Merzbow
2 Hatomatsuri (Dinzu Artefacts) 2 Blood Of Chhinnamastika
3 Hymn To Bagalamukhi (Abhorrent AD) 3 Janna Lee
4 The One That Got Away (Black Ring Rituals) 4 Commuter
5 No Longer Penitent (New Forces) 5 Andrew Coltrane
6 Self-Amputation (Oxidation) 6 BEAM SPLITTER
7 Split Jaw (Tripticks Tapes) 7 Loren Chasse & Juho Toivonen
8 Aclod (Hive Mind) 8 Sobbing.
9 Sobbing. (No label) 9 Wolf Eyes & Model Home
10 More Difficult Messages (Disciples)
10 Asha Sheshadri & Mattin Slices Of Life (Mille Plateaux)
Any annual survey of a musical genre (or three) is like a skim of an ocean or a coring cut in a jungle – a valiant attempt to take stock of more material than any person or group of people could ever hope to process or evaluate. Yet:
themes do reveal themselves and connections are made.
The aptly titled Slices Of Life found Asha Sheshadri and Mattin shuffling together the incidental and confessional in fascinating, jarring ways, a synthesis echoed on the celebratory Presque Tout #100 and the brave Absolute Beginners compilations, and rendered more singly on mHz’s quarantine bummer Same Room, Another Day.
Rate Your Music Custom chart: Esoteric albums of 2023
101.Sices of Life
Asha Sheshadri & Mattin
3 November 2023
Field Recordings Sound Collage Musique concrète
Radio plays:
https://www.citr.ca/radio/bepi-crespan-presents/episode/20240113/
https://www.citr.ca/radio/bepi-crespan-presents/episode/20240113-2/
https://themoderns.blog/2023/11/05/the-moderns-ep-287/
https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/136311
https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/136608
https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/l-etranger/show-475-ninth-shhh-frisks-nd/
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/137532
https://wavefarm.org/radio/wgxc/schedule/y64zg4
Eldoradio
Dortmund 93.00
Klangwelten #462
14.11.2023, 20:00
www.eldoradio.de
Audio: kuhzunft.com/radioshow.html
Hour 2
15. SLICES OF LIFE (1:00:00) - Asha Sheshadri & Mattin (Slices Of Life) - Edition Erich Schmidt/Mille Plateaux (nov3)
16. SECONDS OF THIRST (14:04) - Amelia Cuni, Werner Durand & Uli Hohmann (Clearing) - Aguirre Records (nov10)
17. IMAGINAL PATHWAY (1:27) - Shane Aspegren (Describing the Thing) - Prohibited Records (oct27)
18. SLOSHING (3:46) - Yuko Araki (IV) - Room40 (okt27)
19. HAJIMARI (2:18) - Foodman (Uchigawa Tankentai) - Hyperdub (nov10)
20. UFO FOREST (14:15) - Beatriz Ferreyra (UFO Forest +) - Room40 (nov3)
21. E (3:00) - Eugene Carchesio + Adam Betts (Circle Drum Music) - Room40 (nov3)
22. HAUNTOLOGY (3:24) - ZEA (We Are Still Each Other’s Only Hope) - Makkum Records (nov3)
23. LUDIC LOOP (9:54) - Off World (3) - Constellation (nov3)
24. HYBR SPIRO (5:03) - Leonardo Barbadoro (Musica Automata) - Helical (nov3)
Reviews:
Bad Alchemy
Zwei Jahre nach dem Ausbruch von Covid-19, zwei Tage vor dem russischen Überfall auf die Ukraine entstand Slices of Life (MP67/Edition Erich Schmid). Indem ASHA SHESHADRI in NYC und MATTIN in Berlin Klangschnipsel aus ihrem Lebensumfeld sammelten und zu einer Audiodoku amalgamierten. Mattin braucht keine weitere Vorstellung, Sheshadri ist bekannt geworden durch das essayistische Collagieren und Schichten von multimedialen Materialien. Gleich die ersten gemeinsamen Sekunden bringen das demonstrative Hämmern von Schlägen und Stimmenmulm, die ersten der 60 Minuten hakend repetierte Gesangsfetzen im DIY und als Konserven-Pop, mit schlimm infizierter Schniefnase gelesene Zeilen, verstimmtes Keyboard, geklampfte Gitarre. Ich verstehe „Ritual“, ich höre was von der „Opposition“gegen die „Geniality of Capitalism“. Sheshadri spricht von den Schlafstörungen ausgebeuteter Arbeiterinnen und Poetry, Noisepixel hageln, der Overload von Input wird drastisch bewusst gemacht. In behämmernder und belämmernder Low-Fidelity, mit Musik, die nicht tröstet, mit Stimmen, die stottern und loopen, mit Infos, die nichts klären, mit Noise, der in seinem eigenen Saft brodelt, eimerweise, en gros und en détail, als Comicquatsch, nervige Pop-, Werbespot- und Videospielhysterie, Hallelujah! Irgendwas is about to break is about to break is about to break. Sind technoide Electronica und Rhythm'n'Soul-Hits Teil des Problems oder der Lösung? Ein überdrehtes Band zwitschert, Klingklang quecksilbert... Plunderphonie, CanCan... Stimmen und Geräusche kaskadieren – Opposition Opposition. Im einen Ohr: Bahnhof, im andern rauscht Wasser und der nächste Soulschleim, Absätze klacken, Stimmen haspeln, rappen, sprechen spanisch. (Never) Endend in Plunderphonie. [BA 122 rbd]
Vital Weekly Number 1418 Week 01 - 01/02/2024
There was a time when Mille Plateaux was the label to be on par none (sorry, Staalplaat, Touch and Sub Rosa), perhaps because of their excellent distribution and hefty financial advances (some artists bankrolled his label on that). Then, as their distribution went under, so did the label, and when the label returned, it no longer had that flair. But it’s good to see there are still some weirder releases. I have no idea who Asha Sheshadri is (according to Discogs, “Brooklyn, NY-based Asha Sheshadri (b. 1986) is an artist and musician originally from Southern California. Her work commingles memory construction, questions of citation and translation, and personal and political histories. In her essayistic recordings, videos, and performances, she layers her voice with original writing, text from found documents, literature, manifestos, and cinema, creating environments of musical and non-musical artefacts alike. She has also released music under the project names Isolde Touch and as part of Open Corner.”); Mattin is no stranger to these pages with his conceptual approach to sound. Two years into the whole COVID-19 thing, on February 22, 2022, they took audio snippets from their daily lives, at home, on the street, showing “our intellectual interests and our musical tastes”. The cover is a collage of photos they took on their phone. The piece is exactly on the dot, one hour long, and a collage of spoken word, sounds, and bits of music, some of which are processed, and some not, and it’s “a glimpse of the fragmentation of our times through a broken sonic diary entry’. I can imagine this might be an interesting document in times to come when the pandemic is an even more distant memory than it is now, but for now, I am mildly impressed. ‘Not bad’ and ‘quite interesting’ may not capture the most enthusiastic responses, and I’m a historian, so I know I should care. I do, but how often will one return to such a release? I don’t know.
Blow Up
Calentito Music Distribution (22.11.2023)
電子音楽の老舗レーベル「ミルプラトー」がニューヨークのエクスペリメンタル・アーティストAsha SheshadriとバスクのノイジシャンMattinのコラボ作をリリース。パンデミックのさなかに録りためたさまざまなフィールドレコーディング素材をもとに作り上げた風変りなあのころの回顧録。
アシャ・シェシャドゥリ＆マッティン／スライシズ・オヴ・ライフ
◆ Asha SheshadriはIsolde Touchとしてもおなじみ、現在はニューヨークを拠点としているエクスペリメンタル・アーティスト。Mattinはスペインのバスク地方出身で現在はベルリンで活動しているノイズ＆即興ミュージシャン。
◆ エレクトロニカやアヴァンのフィールドで独自のポジションを確立しているふたりの気鋭アーティストの共作アルバムが設立30年をむかえた電子の老舗ミルプラトー・レーベルから登場。
◆ コラボはパンデミックから2年が経った2022年2月22日にスタート。ふたりはニューヨークとベルリン、それぞれの家の中で、街に出て、あたりで鳴り響くありとあらゆる音やノイズをひたすら収集し、それらをエディットし本作を作り上げた。
◆ 都市ならではの環境音、場面の断片、ナレーション、遠くに聞こえる何か、無や間、入り込んでしまったあの曲この曲、ふたりの出自がうかがえる電子音、などなどからなる60分の特異な音のダイアリー。
https://ashasheshadri.com/
http://www.mattin.org/
【試聴・ご購入】 https://li.sten.to/rtmcd1614
Loop (Valparaíso, published on: 19th March, 2024 Author:Guillermo Escudero)
Spanish (English Below)
Mattin es un músico/activista vasco residente en Berlín y activo desde 2001. Tiene siete álbumes y un sencillo editados como Al Karpenter y más de setenta discos publicados como Mattin.
Participa en la banda Billy Bao y en el proyecto Regler y ha colaborado con importantes músicos como Alan Courtis, Eddie Prévost, Rosy Parlane, Tony Conrad, Valerio Tricoli, entre otros. Mattin trabaja principalmente con ruido e improvisación y ha escrito ensayos y realizado charlas sobre software libre, improvisación y es editor del libro – también editado en español – “Ruido y Capitalismo” (2009), junto a Anthony Iles. También es autor de “Social Dissonance” (2022). La traducción al español del libro “Disonancia social” ya fue editado en Buenos Aires, Argentina y pronto se publicará en Tsonami Ediciones (Valparaíso, Chile).
Mattin desarrolla actualmente otras actividades como performances, exposiciones y realiza giras en Europa.
La artista y música de California, Asha Sheshadri está radicada en Brooklyn, Nueva York y está activa hace 14 años. En sus grabaciones, videos y performances, superpone su propia voz con escritos originales, textos de documentos encontrados, literatura, manifiestos y cine, creando tanto artefactos musicales como no musicales. También ha publicado música bajo los proyectos Isolde Touch y como parte de Open Corner.
En este disco Asha Sheshadri y Mattin comparten grabaciones realizadas en 2022 que capturan fragmentos de audio de la vida cotidiana de ambos, en Nueva York y Berlín respectivamente. Se documentan así sus hogares, entornos urbanos circundantes, intereses intelectuales y gustos musicales, además de recopilar fotografías de sus móviles. Algunas de las fuentes de audio fueron procesadas y otras no.
“Slices of Life” contiene una sola pieza de una hora de duración que registra fragmentos de grabaciones de trabajos domésticos, extractos de entrevistas, discursos y viñetas musicales. Algunos de los registros se escuchan en primer plano, otros como sonido de fondo, junto a una variedad de chasquidos de máquinas electrónicas. El silencio también es parte de esta puesta en escena, así como canciones fuertemente procesadas, extractos de sólo de batería, pedazos de diálogos, de programas de radio y televisión, ruidos soterrados, máquinas tragamonedas, entre otros sonidos. Toda esta amalgama sonora delata la sobreabundancia de ruidos y contenidos comunicacionales a los que estamos expuestos con estas rebanadas de vida (o quizás de no vida) que se ciernen sobre nosotros.
English
Mattin is a Basque musician/activist living in Berlin and active since 2001. He has seven albums and one single released as Al Karpenter and over seventy albums released as Mattin.
He plays in the band Billy Bao and in the Regler project, and has collaborated with renown musicians such as Alan Courtis, Eddie Prévost, Rosy Parlane, Tony Conrad, Valerio Tricoli, among others. Mattin works mainly with noise and improvisation and has written essays and given talks on free software, improvisation and is editor of the book – also published in Spanish – “Noise and Capitalism” (2009), alongside Anthony Iles. He is also the author of “Social Dissonance” (2022). The Spanish translation of the book “Social Dissonance” has already been published in Buenos Aires, Argentina and will soon be released in Tsonami Ediciones (Valparaíso, Chile).
Mattin currently develops other activities such as performances, exhibitions, and tours in Europe.
California artist and musician Asha Sheshadri is based in Brooklyn, New York and has been active for 14 years now. In her recordings, videos, and performances, she overlays her own voice with original writings, texts from found documents, literature, manifestos, and film, creating both musical and non-musical artifacts. She has also released music under the projects Isolde Touch and as part of Open Corner.
On this album Asha Sheshadri and Mattin share recordings made in 2022 that capture audio snippets of their daily lives, in New York and Berlin respectively. Their homes, surrounding urban environments, intellectual interests and musical tastes are thus documented, in addition to collecting photographs from her cell phones. Some of the audio sources were processed and some were not.
“Slices of Life” contains a single hour-long piece that records snippets of housework recordings, excerpts from interviews, speeches, and musical vignettes. Some of the records are heard in the foreground, others as background sound, along with a wide range of clicks from electronic machines. Silence is also part of this staging, as well as heavily processed songs, drum solo excerpts, pieces of dialogue, radio and television programs, underground noises, slot machines, among other sounds. All this sound amalgam reveals the overabundance of noise and communication content to which we are exposed with these slices of life (or perhaps non-life) that hover over us.