DIATRIBES & CRISTIÁN ALVEAR
Roshambo (trio)
3“CDR, (23’16’’), 60 copies, printed cardboard cover
1000füssler 031, released in November 2015
7,00 EUR (include shipping)
Diatribes:
Cyril Bondi, percussions, objects
D’incise, laptop
with Cristián Alvear, guitar
1. Roshambo (trio) (23’16’’) mp3 excerpt
(composed by Diatribes)
This new version of diatribes's piece "Roshambo" (previoulsy released in duo version on the "A new castle" album) was recorded in Santiago, Chile in december 2014, during diatribes tour in South America.
It consist of an ongoing recombination of a limited amount of subtle and soft sound textures, like a serie of slow breathes, taking a new instrumental color with Cristian`s guitar, a more electronic aspect due to d'incise choice of sounds and fieldrecording fragments, along Cyril's delicat touch on acoustic objects.
Recorded in Santiago, Chile, 11.12.2014 at Madre Selva studio, by Alfonso Pérez.
Mix, master and artwork by d’incise.
Diatribes, the Geneva based duo, continues his exploration of simplification and rational rituality, and presents a work tighted together by strict sonic or structural principles. Highly detailed textures, repeated gestures, soft tones, febrile pulses and acoustic hyper-sensibility.
The duo, two improvisors working as complementarity since 2004, after a voracious youth exploring free jazz, noise, musique concrête and free improv, and many collaborations with international musicians such as Magda Mayas, Bertrand Gauguet, Robin Hayward, Dominic Lash, Partick Farmer, Derek Shirley and Hannah Marshall, Barry Guy, Keith Rowe, amongst others, has chosen to focus on a rather introverted process of creation. During the past year they have intensely toured across Europe, in Japan, South America, India, etc.
Cyril Bondi and d'incise are both very active in the Swiss experimental scene, leading the Insub Meta Orchestra, a very large ensemble, and created in the INSUB. label, netlabel & association (since 2006, as Insubordinations). Their unstoppable energy led them to build a strong network around these activities.
Cyril plays solo and with the post-jazz trio Plaistow and d'incise plays solo, works on electro-acoustic set-ups and compositions, and does graphic designs.
dincise.net/diatribes
Cristián Alvear, chilean musician dedicated to the performance, premiere and recording of new music. He serves as co-curator of the experimental music festival Relincha, in Valdivia, Chile.
Since the beginning of his career he has been constantly performing in the main auditoriums and concert halls of his country, as well as international festivals and concert venues. In recent years he has concentrated its efforts in performing educational concerts in rural areas of the los lagos region, in southern Chile.
His work has been published by Edition Wandelweiser Records (Germany), Irritable Hedgehog (USA), Cathnor (UK), Rhizome.s (France), Potlatch (France), 1000füssler (Germany), Lengua de Lava (Mexico), Caduc (Canada), Melange Editions (Japan), B-Boim Records (Austria) and Erstclass (USA)
cristianalvear.com
REVIEWS:
Neural Magazine / Italy
Roshambo (trio) consists of one track of 23 minutes and 16 seconds recorded in Santiago, Chile, in December 2014, at the Madre Selva studio. Recorded by Alfonso Pérez its hypnotic and meditative tones continues to resonate, triggered by calibrated drones, silences and sudden quiet restarts. This elegant, immersive symphony draws the listener into an enchantment that is difficult to describe. Diatribes is a duo based in Geneva comprised of Cyril Bondi (percussion, objects) and d’incise (laptop). On this occasion they are joined by the tonal nuances of Chilean Christian Alvear on guitar. Together they skillfully produce rarefied and inspired atmospheres, producing tracks that are also a bit unsettling, incomplete and delicate. 1000füssler are accustomed to this kind of sonic experiment. Even the CD 3″ format helps to immediately identify an unconventional approach, one imbued with so many suggestions and dilated sequences, breaths and hums, obtained by Alvear carefully manipulating, vibrating, brushing or tapping surfaces. The composition was previously released in duo version on the “A new castle” album. It is not immediately apparent if there are field recordings in this work. What seems more certain, however, is that the present release is a kind of enhanced version with the contributions of Alvear to produce a more feverish and acoustic impression. ‘Recombination’ is the term that best describes this remarkable process, imbued with different aesthetics and musical wisdoms, which are shared but are also very intimate and sensitive, in a stylistic path that is defined by sound choices, in a very responsive and always complicit union. Embracing an approach that is also free form, each of the musicians adds subtle textures that become sedimented between silences and stylized acoustic-electronic treatments, evanescent and abstract, which are structured in progressive waves in ethereal and somewhat sidereal flows, beatific but still not entirely pacified.
italian version: Una sola traccia – di 23 minuti e 16 secondi, registrata a Santiago del Cile, nel Dicembre del 2014, al Madre Selva studio, da Alfonso Pérez – risuona adesso ancora ipnotica e meditativa, innestata da ponderati droni, silenzi e subitanee ripartenze, un’elegante sinfonia che avvolge all’ascolto e appassiona con una malia non semplice da descrivere. Diatribes è un duo che ha base a Ginevra, composto da Cyril Bondi (percussioni, oggetti) e d’incise (laptop), al quale in questa occasione è stato aggiunto il cileno Christian Alvear (chitarra), completando un ensemble dalle molte nuance tonali. Insieme sono davvero abili nel mantenere le atmosfere rarefatte e ispirate, spingendo sequenze anche un po’ inquietanti, lacunose ma soavi. Alla 1000füssler sono avvezzi a questo genere di sperimentazioni sonore e anche il formato CD 3” aiuta a immediatamente identificare un’opera certo non convenzionale, intrisa di tante suggestioni e sequenze dilatate, respiri e ronzii, questi ottenuti da Alvear manipolando con cura, facendo vibrare, spazzolando o percuotendo superfici. Non è immediatamente decifrabile se vi siano field recording in questo lavoro – la composizione fu precedentemente rilasciata in una versione per duo sull’abum “A new castle” – e quello che sembra più certo, tuttavia, è che quella attuale sia una sorta di enhanced version con i contributi del musicista cileno a rendere più febbrile e acustica la qualità dei suoni. Ricombinazione è il termine che meglio descrive questo avventuroso processo, impregnato da differenti estetiche e conoscenze musicali, che sono condivise ma sono anche molto intime e sensibili, in un percorso stilistico che è definito dalle scelte dei suoni, in un connubio sempre molto reattivo e complice. Abbracciando un approccio che è anche free form ognuno dei musicisti aggiunge flebili trame che sono sedimentate fra silenzi e stilizzati trattamenti acustico-elettronici, evanescenti e astratti, che vengono strutturati a ondate progressive in flussi eterei ed alquanto siderali, beatifici ma ancora non del tutto pacificati.
Aurelio Cianciotta, 18. November 2016, http://neural.it
Fluid Radio / UK
Just when you thought there was nothing left to be done with the ‘sound-silence-sound’ strain of composition that can be heard almost ubiquitously in certain experimental music circles of late, here comes diatribes and Cristián Alvear with another excellent and fresh-sounding example of the genre. The composite sounds framed by silence are as gorgeous and ear-catching as ever, but each member of the trio adds something new and unexpected to the mix. If you think you’ve heard the name of the piece somewhere before, you’re probably thinking of the version on diatribes’ album “A new castle”; this new trio version was recorded in Santiago, Chile during the Swiss duo’s recent South American tour.
You may also be thinking that the delicately plucked acoustic guitar strings heard from Alvear on recordings of compositions such as Radu Malfatti’s ‘shizuka ni furu ame’ and Ryoko Akama’s ‘Hermit’ would complement the various rumbles, hisses, and tones heard on the original version of ‘roshambo’ rather nicely. You may well be right, but Alvear chooses a different path on this occasion, contributing a number of e-bow hums, body knocks, and string scrapes to the proceedings — not a clearly plucked string to be heard. Cyril Bondi is in a much more rhythmic mood this time round, his acoustic objects gently tapping, ticking, brushing, rattling and shaking through the various figures. His partner-in-art d’incise, as well as reprising various electronic tones, also contributes a number of field recordings that vary from clearly recognisable as such to ambiguous in origin. I think this is the first time I’ve heard field recordings used in this sort of composition, and it’s very effective.
Make a sound together, pause; make another sound together, pause; repeat for twenty minutes or so. It sounds like such a simple recipe, but the results are far from dull or unimaginative. Maybe it’s due to the use of field recordings, but to me this version of ‘roshambo’ seems more reminiscent than any other work I’ve heard in this style of a series of snapshots or polaroids in a slideshow, the continuous cycling through from one image to the next. The sounds share photographs’ ambiguous location somewhere between discrete objects and moments in a stream or narrative, repeating a regular form while constantly varying timbre and harmony. Through its variations on a theme or permutations of an idea, “roshambo (trio)” offers a critique of time and duration through an absorbing, open-ended musical experiment, at once sculptural and ephemeral.!
Nathan Thomas, April 2016, fluid-radio.co.uk
Vital Weekly / Netherlands
Diatribes is a duo from Geneva of Cyril Bondi (percussions, objects) and D'incise (laptop), who released a great record, 'Great Stone/Blood Dunza' (see Vital Weekly 978) but also various other works. Here they team up with Christian Alvear from Chile, who plays guitar and together they perform a piece that Diatribes previously released, on 'A New Castle' (see Vital Weekly 954), now played in a trio setting which some excellent results. In this piece they play a small curve, built from the rumble of an object over the one or two drums skins, guided by what could be sine waves or drone like sounds by D'Incise and now also guitar overtones and perhaps some mild drumming now and then on the body of the guitar. None of these curves are the same, which is of course the intention of this piece. Maybe on the surface they might seem the same, but upon close listening you will notice they aren't. This is surely one hell of a meditative release, which slowly unfolds beauty upon beauty. Excellent release!
Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly 1019
Le Son du Grisli / France
Sans y paraître, les petits disques 1000füssler prennent de plus en plus de place, s’installent dans le paysage mais en toute discrétion. C’est ce que font les deux dernières publications du label, qui datent de novembre dernier : Roshambo (Trio) de Diatribes et Cristián Alvear et On 3 Pipes de Yan Jun. Après l’écoute, et une fois rangés, on les soupçonne même d’enregistrer encore…
C’est chez Alvear, au Chili, que D’incise et Cyril Bondi sont allés enregistrer Roshambo, une de leurs compositions déjà consignée sur disque (A New Castle). La guitare de l’invité devra faire face aux bourdons du duo et jouer aussi avec ses souffles, ses silences, ses enregistrements de terrain – d’un monde renversé où les Suisses gagnent en altitude –, ses usinages en équilibre… Alvear choisissant de se fondre dans le décor, il composera ce trio qui ne changera pas Diatribes mais le déstabilisera quand même, en sourdine.
Guillaume Belhomme, 2016/06/27 grisli.canalblog.com
Bad Alchemy / Germany
Um in Santiago ihre Komposition Roshambo (trio) (1000füssler 031, 3" mCD-R) aufzuführen, bat das Genfer Duo DIATRIBE den Chilenen CRISTIÁN ALVEAR dazu, dessen Wandelweiser-Gitarre durch seine Performances von Beuger, Duplant, Lucier und Pisaro ein Begriff ist. D'incise spielt Laptop, Cyril Bondi Percussions & Objects, um einiges insubordinärer als mit Plaistow. Nämlich mit monotonem Tamtam, leisen Klangschalentupfern, Schabklängen und längeren Pausen zu einer Reihe von Dröhnwolken und schwerelosen Wummerklumpen. Die in eine leichte Unschärfe getauchte Klangfolge wechselt lediglich in der Schattierung, Tempo und Lautstärke bleiben lange gleich schwach, gleich sanft und gelassen, bevor Bondi fein pochend die Schlagzahl doch auch mal erhöht. D'incise blendet Alltagsgeräusche mit ein, die Gitarre bleibt immer nur Dröhnquelle, der Duktus atmend, beruhigend, besänftigend. Ich finde sowas immer eher beunruhigend.
Rigo Dittmann / Bad Alchemy 89
www.1000fuessler