REPREMONITIUM | Artificial Memory Trace & Porya Hatami
GrDl 171 | Gruen Digital > [order]
MP3 & FLAC
Reviews
Following from their 2015 release “EVOLVA 5”, Porya Hatami and Artificial Memory Trace continue their ongoing collaboration. Since 2014 the artists, based in Iran and Ireland respectively, have been exchanging field recordings from their local areas and processing them into otherworldly soundscapes.
This extensive project’s latest chapter is “REPREMONITIUM”, a single piece lasting nearly 70 minutes and covering a lot of ground in its duration. Soft bell-like chimes flicker across the stereo field, the resonances of which grow into longer shapes and forms, until overtaken by more abrasive sounds that resemble Shepard tones, rising and falling, undulating into infinity. Darker moods are conjured in the middle section, more submersed, aquatic and buried. Varying from dense and super-structural, to ultra-minimal, the final third ends with the faintest of harmonics and distant melody.
This is abstract sound art presented as a journey, where music isn’t so much played but implied. The found sound of everyday caught by microphones, constructed and composed.
1 Track (78′46″)
Excerpts:
Sound Art Series by Gruenrekorder
Gruenrekorder / Germany / 2017 / GrDl 171 / LC 09488
Hal Harmon | Musique Machine
Gruenrekorder presents REPREMONTIUM, the second collaborative venture by Artificial Memory Trace and Porya Hatami. Available digitally in MP3 and FLAC formats, this massive single piece is a follow up to the duo’s 2015 release EVOLVA 5.
While I’m not familiar with the aforementioned album, I have spent quite a bit of time absorbing many of Artificial Memory Trace’s sounds. The moniker of Czech-born sound sculptor, Slavek Kwi, AMT crafts some exceptional field recording soundscapes. Porya Hatami is an Iranian-based sound artist that toils in ambient, minimalist sounds. Field recordings, minimalist sounds, Gruenrekorder….does that sound like the perfect synergy? Yeah, pretty much.
Nearly 70 minutes in duration, REPREMONTIUM is the perfect marriage of ambience and eeriness. The core of the piece revolves around repetitive sounds of chimes and bells that carry and resonate in mesmerizing waves. It carries on very delicately, but not without a little grime added for good measure. Cracks and pops gurgle in the foreground, as the chimes and bells gradually intensify. There’s persistent atmospheric exhaust sounds, and high end resonance that ebbs and flows. The sounds gradually take on a creepier dimension as more and more abrasive tones take up the track’s mid-section. There’s also these aquatic tones that sound (or at least what imagine it would sound) like being submerged in the submarine. Things quiet down again in the track’s final act where we similarly end as we began.
All in all this is another solid release from the reliably reliable Gruenrekorder. I honestly haven’t heard a bad album from this label.
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Guillermo Escudero | Loop
This is a new collaboration between the Iranian Porya Hatami and the Czechoslovakian Artificial Memory Trace aka Slavek Kwi, who resides in Ireland and the one that precedes his previous album „Evolva“ 5.
Since 2014 these sound artists have been exchanging field recordings captured in their local areas that later are processed.
“Repremonitium” is one track only of around 70 minutes long which displays sinuous sounds that move in the background while the field recordings emerge almost clearly in the surface alongwith voices, bird songs, insects and found sounds, all of it arrange with subtle sounds generated by a design software, creating soundscapes with a rich variety of shades.
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Beach Sloth
Artificial Memory Trace & Porya Hatami hark back to early electronic music pioneers with the soothing bliss of “Repremonitium”. Quiet and contemplative the piece unfolds in discrete ways. Subtle transitions are of the utmost importance for the music shifts with grace and taste. By incorporating lovely tender analog sounds alongside found sounds and manipulated field recordings, the sound feels alive. Layer upon layer of this work results in miniature movements and symphonies, all of which come together in a blissful serene state.
Nearly silent, the sparkling introduction begins the piece on a gentle note. With every sound fully realized the way that the piece unfurls feels gorgeous. Slowly but surely, they zoom out, incorporating a wider spectrum of sounds into the mix. Eventually the outside world is brought into the fray, letting the tactile sound further emphasizing the fragile nature of the piece. Akin to a classical style, the next movement has a nearly nostalgic, yellow-hued tone that drifts off into the infinite. The texture changes once more into something much more industrial as the romantic sheen wears off for a bit. Halfway through the piece everything gains a meditative, Zen-like quality to it. Various details are scrubbed clean resulting in a shimmering drone whose static qualities are calming. For the latter stretch of the piece Artificial Memory Trace & Porya Hatami create a mood like that of Vladimir Ussachevsky’s cherished 50s and 60s works.
With “Repremonitium” Artificial Memory Trace & Porya Hatami deliver a spellbinding work, one whose temperament is trance-like in tone.
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