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les \u00e9coutis le caire | Gilles Aubry<\/a> & St\u00e9phane Montavon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Gruen 061 | Audio CD > [Sold Out<\/span>]<\/p>\n MP3 & FLAC > [order<\/a>]<\/p>\n Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n les \u00e9coutis le caire‘ is a dual work that comprises a sound composition by Gilles Aubry and a poetic text in French by St\u00e9phane Montavon. Materials for both elements were collected during a six-week residency in Cairo in February and March 2007.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The sound piece is based on the principle of ‚indirect listening‘ to a busy city soundscape. It features recordings of several enclosed spaces chosen for their resonant properties and predominantly silent contexts : a bathroom, a market hall, a basilica, a courtyard, a refrigerator and a parking house. Throughout the piece the identification of the sound sources remains uncertain, as the distant hubbub of life in the streets diffuses inside the recorded spaces. Such ambiguity \u2013 further extended through the editing process – requires that the listener pay closer attention, and at the same time allows for a more intense musical experience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The textual counterpart to the audio work is presented as a large wordmap that drifts through the various recording locations, as well as other places in Cairo. Rendering the rhythmical confrontations of diverse urban situations, the text focuses on their audiovisual discrepancies. In its fragmentary way, the poem sketches some of the city’s acoustical configurations, also taking aural snapshots of characters and scenes. These singular encounters are woven into a partial word-tapestry of gestures, images and sounds, providing a complementary glimpse into another indirect, though equally voyeuristic, form of listening to the city.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notes: les \u00e9coutis le caire<\/a> | Arabic (PDF; 115 KB)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Track 1 (29:15 min)<\/p>\n MP3<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n MP3<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n MP3<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Track 2 (23:30 min)<\/p>\n MP3<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Graphic design by Gilles Lepore<\/p>\n Soundscape Series by Gruenrekorder<\/p>\n Gruenrekorder \/ Germany \/ 2010 \/ Gruen 061 \/ LC 09488 \/ EAN 4050486012314<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Massimo Ricci | TOUCHING EXTREMES<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This release is part of a label series devoted to field recordings, though the latter only constitute the groundwork of something more comparable to a minimalist opus than a collection of acoustic landscapes. Indeed the way in which Gilles Aubry processed and seamed voices and urban noises from Cairo \u2013 taped in 2007 during a residency \u2013 tends to exploit the canorous properties of the local activities, disposed according to criteria of rhythmical reiteration and mind-cuddling resonance with just a slight addition of electronic frequencies. Mixing the results in two separate pieces, Aubry shows us useful shortcuts in a neighborhood where failure is right behind the corner. We can choose among different listening methods: focusing on the discovery of hidden details, or using the record as a source of pleasingly insistent metropolitan textures to match a particularly meditative phase of a quiet evening (I confess of having fallen asleep at some stage in the first try). The CD is complemented by a sizeable \u201cwordmap\u201d containing St\u00e9phane Montavon\u2019s text about the \u201caudiovisual discrepancies\u201d of the situations encountered in the city throughout the staying period. Written in French \u2013 a language unfortunately never mastered by this reviewer \u2013 the document contributes to an artistic assertion that deserves attentive appraisals before the emission of a definitive verdict. My gut feeling is one of concord, reinforced by consecutive spins.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joshua Meggitt | Cyclic Defrost<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Les \u00c9coutis Le Caire (roughly translated as The Listeners of Cairo) is deeply immersed in the sounds of the Egyptian city, capturing, burrowing into and amplifying heterodox audio sources into a multi-layered, densely textured cacophonous document. Sounds were collected by Gilles Aubry while St\u00e9phane Montavon worked on text, during a six-week residency in Cairo in February and March 2007.<\/p>\n Editing, montage and resonance are the main elements at work in these two similarly structured nearly half-hour long pieces. Aubry focused on a number of enclosed spaces: a bathroom, a market hall, a basilica, a courtyard, a refrigerator and a car park. These sources remain abstract, with the focus brought to the distant din which bleeds in on and overwhelms these spaces, random detritus, confused urban noise in all its frenzied forms. A howling, hissing drone seems to wind through both tracks, functioning as an anchor of sorts, around which finer details emerge and retreat: whistling wind, trickling water, indistinct chattering, honking traffic. Frequently the noise is overwhelming, not in the sense of harsh volume but of overcrowding, of there being too many elements to absorb. At other times it becomes music, cars swinging doppler effects like strings, voices taking on tonal form. Both works trail off into pleasingly bucolic finales, birdsong accompanying calm, spacious pockets of activity, possibly sourced from a suburban picnic, reminding listeners that it\u2019s not all go in Cairo. The packaging is particularly lavish, making for an attractive alternative travel guide for anyone visiting the city.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mohammed Ashraf | The Silent Ballet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Anyone who\u2019s lived in Cairo can tell you this: between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., it is the most beautiful city in the world. Driving through the rarely empty streets or a walking along the Nile without being bothered by the car exhausts and inhumane noises is an experience that is highly recommended by all peace seeking Cairenes. But then again, that is not what the Cairo people endure on a day to day basis, and it is definitely not the Cairo that Gilles Aubry has caught on tape on this album.<\/p>\n Les \u00c9coutis Le Caire (roughly translated as The Listeners of Cairo or Cairo\u2019s Listeners) is two nearly half-hour long pieces of layered field recordings made in 2007 by Aubry when he resided in Cairo, accompanied by the poetry of St\u00e9phane Montavon*. I’ve lived in Cairo all my life, and initially thought that any attempt to capture the city\u2019s essence on tape would be destined to fail. Not to underestimate Aubry\u2019s abilities, but the amount of entangled sounds, noises of all forms coming from all surroundings, and\u00a0 sheer cacophony of the whole place is just too much to portray in an hour-long recording, not to mention making something meaningful out of it. Surprisingly enough, these artists were able to make it happen with their blend of music and accompanying text. They have been able to achieve an extremely difficult feat and portray the city in a manner that hasn\u2019t been done before.<\/p>\n The key to this work\u2019s success is the amazing job that was done in cutting, pasting and placing the recordings. An additional embellishment comes in the form of a wind tunnel effect drone that runs throughout the length of the album (and which was actually recorded inside a ventilation duct). It acts as a muffler, a nod to the overpopulated metropolis, a gate which allows each sound to pass at exactly the right time. This enhances the feeling of distances, of locations, of some things coming closer while others disappear in the distance. This drone is Aubry\u2019s mind in action, our insight into how he thought about the album, or his technique of \u201cindirect listening\u201d. It’s very hard to tell what is happening at each exact moment but the listener gets a feeling of standing and drinking in the surroundings.<\/p>\n Aubry’s decision to take samples mainly from Cairo\u2019s downtown area (confirmed by the names of the streets in the attached text) is worthy of applause, as downtown Cairo is an area of stark contrast and rich history. The old campus of the American University, home to the richer Egyptian youngsters, lies next to a rundown, covered souk, and is one of his sound locations. Honorable testaments to Greek, French, and Italian architecture stand opposite repulsive post-revolution slabs of cement. But most importantly, with the area being at the heart of the city: traffic! Lots of it. Immense numbers of cars in tiny streets that, in turn, lead to a huge number of angry commuters, and an onslaught of cussing and yelling. These elements allowed Aubry to gather diverse and accurate recordings, providing Montavon with the inspiration to write his eerily strange but beautiful guide.<\/p>\n It is actually a bit scary how accurate the experience of listening to this album is when compared to the real thing. I have listened to it while walking, driving, and while standing on my balcony, as forms of experimentation, and every time, after the album has been playing for a bit, the sounds blend in perfectly with the streets and noises.<\/p>\n Les \u00c9coutis Le Caire is a testament to the power of music and words to capture real life perfectly without a single photo or form of visual aid. The artists have provided a taste of Cairo\u2019s unique spirit and a truly engaging work of art. I would recommend this to anyone who\u2019s never been to the city, as a means of insight; and to those who\u2019ve lived their entire lives here, to give them something to remember and appreciate it by. One question remains, how come none of the Egyptian musicians ever thought of doing that? Oh yeah, they were busy covering Pearl Jam.<\/p>\n *Another very good accompaniment to the album are the poems by Egyptian poet Hoda Hussein which describe the journey. You can find those here<\/a>.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fabrice Vanoverberg | Rifraf<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jan Denolet | Dark Entries<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dit hier is nog een knutselwerkje waarvan de som van de delen een prachtig totaalkunstwerk vormen. Eerst en vooral hebben we de eenvoudige maar in het oog springende -want atypische- rechthoekige kartonnen verpakking. Daarin vinden we naast de CD ook nog begeleidende po\u00ebzie, zonder verdere opsmuk gedrukt op groot posterformaat. Die po\u00ebzie is van de hand van Stephane Montavon en omschrijft -in het frans- diens beschouwingen over diens verblijf in Ca\u00efro. Reisgezel was geluidskunstenaar Gilles Aubry, die tijdens tochten door de stad veldopnames maakte en deze later bewerkte tot een soundtrack voor een stad. Als echte ambientmuziek laat het je aandacht afdwalen om uiteindelijk toch steeds aanwezig te zijn. Je waant je zo in een of andere stad en inderdaad: wanneer we door de straten wandelen dan zouden we bijna onbewust deze geluiden horen. Je ziet de denkbeeldige stad a.h.w. aan je geestesoog voorbij gaan. Als je daar dan ook de teksten van Montavon bij neemt dan ben je zou vertrokken voor een auditieve en intellectuele wandeling door De Stad… Krachtig in zijn eenvoud!!<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Aurelio Cianciotta | neural<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n A simple white sheet, 51 by 84 centimeters, with the poetry of St\u00e9phane Montavon spread over it. The CD is basically environmental field recordings, made by Gilles Aubry in Cairo, Egypt, in a bathroom, in a covered market, in a basilica and in a courtyard. Finally, other „audio catches“ that can be traced to a refrigerator and a parking house, all gathered in a large box made of rough thick cardboard, held together by a coarse rubber band. The titles, the authors\u2019 names and the other information are just engraved, without any ink. Why such meticulous care? Why are such seemingly random and inessential elements combined into a single project? Shaky sound sources, confused mumbles, fragmented juxtapositions, all contribute to the challenge, to the ambiguity of the data, in a multi-faceted and fascinating editing process. The indeterminate prompts us to pay more attention, the mediation between what is unusual and what is less so, favors – ultimately – the creative development of new ideas and plots.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n H\u00e9ctor Cabrero | Le son du Grisli<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Entre deux plaques de carton gris, Gilles Aubry et St\u00e9phane Montavon ont dissimul\u00e9 Les \u00e9coutis Le Caire. Avec, il y a aussi un poster-po\u00e8me \u00ab moderne \u00bb con\u00e7u par Montavon dans l’id\u00e9e des calligrammes, c’est donc \u00e0 dire : beaucoup moins \u00ab moderne \u00bb qu’il n’y para\u00eet. Beaucoup moins \u00ab moderne \u00bb que le disque de field recordings qu’il cache en tout cas.<\/p>\n Sur ce disque, il y a in\u00e9vitablement des bruits. Des bruits de la ville qu’est Le Caire aujourd’hui (tentaculaire, \u00e9tendue, inembrassable d’un coup d’un seul, que ce soit du regard ou de l’oreille). L’auditeur que nous sommes tombe sur une all\u00e9e au trafic dense ou sur un chantier certainement ralenti par la chaleur. Plus loin, c’est le bruit que font des machines ou des radios qui vomissent des voix ou crachent des m\u00e9lodies insens\u00e9es. Et puis tout \u00e0 coup, une douce musique prend le dessus sur ce fatras magnifique, elle le transforme, le rythme. On ne sait trop comment Gilles Aubry et St\u00e9phane Montavon ont agenc\u00e9 toutes ces preuves de r\u00e9alit\u00e9. Mais elles se trouvent l\u00e0, sur un partition musicale surprenante, et m\u00eame tr\u00e8s belle.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dan Warburton | Paris Transatlantic Magazine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n „The place is just crazy!“ said a friend of mine about a recent visit to Cairo. „It took me thirty minutes to cross the bloody street!“ Well, it wasn’t just any street as it turned out, but Ramses Square, through which 35,000 pedestrians and a quarter of a million vehicles pass every hour. If you’re interested, there are plenty more alarming statistics to be found online about Africa’s largest (population 15 million) city, where noise levels downtown frequently hit 90dB at 7.30am \u2013 a 1994 local law stipulating that they shouldn’t exceed 52dB during daytime and 37 at night has been blithely ignored \u2013 but Berlin-based Swiss sound artist Gilles Aubry’s claustrophobic montage of field recordings gives you a pretty clear idea of what the place must be like. Actually, „clear“ is the wrong word there \u2013 this is the closest thing I can imagine to musical equivalent of smog. Instead of trying to cross the street himself, mic in hand, Aubry recorded its distant angry blur inside spaces with their own specific resonant frequencies, sometimes large (a courtyard, a church, a marketplace, a carpark..) sometimes small (a bathroom, a refrigerator). It’s a process Aubry describes as „indirect listening“, layering his recordings on top of each other \u2013 you can hear the different „voices“ entering one by one at the beginning of the disc \u2013 to create 54 minutes of dense micropolyphony. Fans of field recording might bemoan the lack of signposts in this urban jungle \u2013 where are those muezzins and their calls to prayer, where are those bustling native markets? Answer: they’re in there but you have to struggle to find them, in the same way that you have to struggle to work out the name of the album, embossed on the back of the thick grey cardboard sleeve, a red elastic band enclosing a carefully-folded poster containing a „word map“ by Swiss poet St\u00e9phane Montavon, which itself may or may not help you find your way around this place \u2013 assuming, that is, you can understand French.\u2013DW<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DE:BUG<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n BLOW UP.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Monsieur D\u00e9lire<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The most vivid thing I’ve heard from Gilles Aubry. This field recordist usually invites us to explore static sound spaces for long stretches of time. But not this time. Les \u00e9coutes le caire features two half-hour tracks, both made of overlaid field recordings weaving dynamic and active webs of sound, even though the sources are closed spaces. A developed, mature piece of work enriched by poems by St\u00e9pane Montavon, presented in a booklet\/poster that reads like a road map that (mis)guides your mind as the sounds go by. I must point out the packaging; two pieces of embossed cardboard held together b\u00a5 a rubber band. Simple, stripped down, esthetic.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Le disque le plus vivant que j’aie entendu \u00e0 ce jour de Gilles Aubry. Cet artiste sonore de field recording a tendance \u00e0 nous laisser explorer des espaces sonores statiques sur de longues plages de temps. Pas cette fois. Les \u00e9coutes le caire propose deux pi\u00e8ces d’une demi-heure, toutes deux des amalgames d’enregistrements de terrain qui tissent des toiles dynamiques et actives, m\u00eame s’il s’agit d’espaces clos r\u00e9sonants. Un travail pouss\u00e9, m\u00fbr, et enrichi par les po\u00e8mes de St\u00e9phane Montavon, \u00e0 lire dans un livret-affiche comme une carte routi\u00e8re qui guide (et d\u00e9route) l’esprit au fil des sons. \u00c0 souligner aussi: la pr\u00e9sentation: deux morceaux de carton emboss\u00e9 r\u00e9unis par une bande \u00e9lastique. Simple, d\u00e9pouill\u00e9, esth\u00e9tique.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Guillermo Escudero | LOOP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Swiss sound artists Gilles Aubry and St\u00e9phane Montavon have collaborated in different projects exploring field recordings techniques.<\/p>\n „Les \u00c9coutis le Caire“ is printed in a rectangular cardboard that comes with a French text in the inner sleeve written by St\u00e9phane Montavon with Aubry field recordings taken from urban places in Cairo.<\/p>\n Not only pure recordings but some of them are processed which contain voices, sounds of cars, claxons, noises of metal beats, jackhammers like and some others barely identifiable.<\/p>\n The idea of repetition is always present here with voices, dialogues or other noises such as claxons, an attempt to stick to the memory the claustrophobic sensations of overpopulated cities nowadays.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n El artista sonoro suizo Gilles Aubry y St\u00e9phane Montavon han colaborado en diferentes proyectos explorando las t\u00e9cnicas de grabaciones de campo.<\/p>\n „Les \u00c9coutis le Caire“ est\u00e1 editado es un cart\u00f3n rectangular que viene junto a un texto en franc\u00e9s escrito por St\u00e9phane Montavon con los registros de campo de Aubry capturados de lugares de la urbe de El Cairo.<\/p>\n No solo hay grabaciones puras, sino que algunas de ellas est\u00e1n procesadas que contiene voces, sonidos de autom\u00f3viles, bocinas, ruidos de golpes de metales, retroexcavadoras y algunos otros poco clasificables.<\/p>\n La idea de repetici\u00f3n aqu\u00ed est\u00e1 siempre presente con voces, di\u00e1logos y otros ruidos como bocinas; un intento para \u201cpegar\u201d en la memoria la sensaci\u00f3n claustrof\u00f3bica de las ciudad sobrepobladas de nuestros d\u00edas.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Frans de Waard | VITAL WEEKLY<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n In a very nice cardboard sleeve we find a CD (by Gilles Aubry) and a large poster with a text in French by Stephane Montavon. I am sure lots of people speak or read French, but there are more who don’t. So it eludes me why this is part of it. No doubt there is a relation to the two pieces on the CD, which were recorded during a six week stay in the CD. Aubry taped the busy city from within rooms with ‚resonant properties‘: a bathroom, a market hall, a basilica, a courtyard, a refrigerator and a parking house. You hear the city, but its always a bit remote, a bit far away, a bit blurred. Its not a strict fifty minute recording here, but Aubry has made a collage out of these recordings, superimposing them (which means he layered a few), in order to further blurr the effect. The humming of machines, walking and talking of people, cars passing far and above. Like a beautiful day – like today actually – when the window is open and sounds from outside leap into your environment. I have not been to Cairo, but I can vividly imagine it would sound like this. I am not sure if two is more than one here: both pieces seem to have a similar approach, which makes perhaps the second one a bit superfluous. Not always more equals better, and in the limitation one can show beauty too. But through a pretty good release, musicwise. I can judge about the text, but a translation would be welcome, I guess.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ed Pinsent | The Sound Projector<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Gilles Aubry provides claustrophobic urban field recordings brought back from certain enclosed spaces, showcasing them on Les \u00c9coutis Le Caire (GRUENREKORDER GRUEN 061) over two lengthy suites of edited material. Amongst these intensive and crowded rumblings, the sense of despair is only barely kept at arm\u2019s length, and even hardened city dwellers such as myself blanch at the harsh realities with which this French Swiss audio composer confronts us. A counterpoint of sorts is provided by the words of St\u00e9phane Montavon, printed in harsh red and black typography on a paper which had been folded up and inserted into the release as a \u2018word map\u2019. How Situationist! Although it\u2019s not explicitly mentioned in the press notes, I expect this entire package, with its blind-letterpress card cover and circular holes cut in the back for purposes of revealing key words in the word-map, is intended to be used on your next psychogeographical stroll (or d\u00e9rive) around the city.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nicole Caligaris | Sitaudis.fr<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n La justesse de ce pari artistique est de combiner les trois dimensions fascinantes du Caire : le son, le temps, l’espace, dans une tr\u00e8s int\u00e9ressante proposition, sous \u00e9l\u00e9gant cartonnage, d’un po\u00e8me poster de St\u00e9phane Montavon et d’un CD de musique acousmatique de Gilles Aubry.<\/p>\n Avant toute chose, plaisir musical, une m\u00e9tropole s’\u00e9coute : elle se livre dans le son que la vie produit, qui a form\u00e9 profond\u00e9ment l’enfance de ses habitants, qui les tient ensemble, qui les lui attache, qui rend \u00e9tranger l’\u00e9tranger. Le son du Caire dit la puissance de cette ville, un son flux, \u00e9pais, continu, variant de hauteur selon les heures, pas de rythme, charriant des \u00e9clats, des pointes, des cr\u00eates \u00e0 l’int\u00e9rieur de sa p\u00e2te constante.<\/p>\n Les \u00c9coutis Le Caire sont le produit de deux \u00e9coutes, celle de St\u00e9phane Montavon, auteur d’un po\u00e8me qui se pr\u00e9sente comme une constellation de paroles autour de lieux phares de la ville, le vieux march\u00e9 Bab el Louk, le Mogamma, b\u00e2timent administratif qui fait rep\u00e8re pour les touristes et les taxis, etc. ; et celle de Gilles Aubry, compositeur de deux pi\u00e8ces de musique acousmatique, \u00e0 partir de sons concrets enregistr\u00e9s dans la ville.<\/p>\n La particularit\u00e9 de la musique acousmatique, musique produite sur ordinateur, donn\u00e9e en concert par des haut-parleurs, non pas par des interpr\u00e8tes, est de mettre en relation l’auditeur avec le son lui-m\u00eame, le son comme une mati\u00e8re comportant sa propre consistance, ses accidents, ses volumes, ses valeurs, ses formes, sa sculpture, son espace, son paysage, et c’est une tr\u00e8s belle fa\u00e7on de go\u00fbter Le Caire, que cette double composition qui installe d’abord un souffle, peu \u00e0 peu respiration, c’est-\u00e0-dire rythme, dur\u00e9es qui se succ\u00e8dent sans rupture, par de subtils \u00e9veils de hauteurs, par des r\u00e9verb\u00e9rations qui lui donnent une profondeur de champ, qui introduisent la perspective, autrement dit l’espace, dans le son, puis par l’arriv\u00e9e de voix, \u00e0 l’int\u00e9rieur de ce souffle continu qui varie, dont on \u00e9coute diff\u00e9remment les cycles, qui se d\u00e9ploie puis diminue, se d\u00e9fait de ses \u00e9l\u00e9ments, jusqu’\u00e0 un moment de rupture qui marque la limite entre le corps du morceau et la fin qui d\u00e9pose le son peu \u00e0 peu, calme, corbeaux, voil\u00e0.<\/p>\n Et dans cette continuit\u00e9, le temps du Caire, m\u00e9lop\u00e9e de la ville, flux, li\u00e9, indivis, sans tranches horaires. C’est Le Caire, oui, c’est le Caire, cette musique, le son des balais, le son des chantiers, les sons de l’artisanat qui se travaille dans la rue, les klaxons, bien s\u00fbr, identit\u00e9 du Caire, mais travaill\u00e9s avec discr\u00e9tion, en d\u00e9calage du clich\u00e9, c’est Le Caire mais cette reconnaissance n’est que le bonus d’une musique, riche et forte, qui s’\u00e9coute pour elle-m\u00eame et \u00e0 laquelle, en contrepoint, le texte spatialis\u00e9 apporte une construction par ruptures. Fait d’\u00e9clats, d’\u00e9nonciations multiples, d’\u00e9nonc\u00e9s tronqu\u00e9s, disparates, le texte dit la p\u00e9n\u00e9tration du singulier par le commun, la fragmentation de la continuit\u00e9, de la pens\u00e9e, de la parole, de l’existence, dans cette ville qui la rend impossible et malgr\u00e9 l’impossible, malgr\u00e9 l’entrave, d’une vitalit\u00e9 passionnante, ce que le texte dit, dans le chahut des paroles qu’il fait surgir du blanc qui les coupe.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ron Schepper | textura<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n les \u00e9coutis le caire, the latest release in Gruenrekorder’s always captivating Field Recording Series, is a dual project involving a sound composition (premiered on Deutschland Radio in 2009) by Gilles Aubry, a Swiss sound artist currently residing in Berlin, and a poetic text in French by Basel, Switzerland-based St\u00e9phane Montavon. The CD, which arrives housed within a large-format cardboard case with die-cut circles punched out of its cover and blind embossed type on its backside, features two long-form settings (a half-hour and twenty-four minutes, respectively). The opening piece is a half-hour sound portrait of a busy city where public transit systems and blaring car horns jostle for position and crowd into a mix that draws from recordings collected in Cairo at a bathroom, market hall, basilica, courtyard, and parking house. The source materials lose their identifiable character as they blur into a huge, rumbling mass of relentless, hyper-intense activity. It often sounds like what one would expect to hear were a microphone placed at the center of a city’s busiest intersection at rush hour and the results amplified to their fullest. Halfway through, the transit-related intensity retreats slightly to allow voices to emerge more clearly\u2014not that there’s any lessening of intensity in general terms as surrounding the voices are hydraulic emissions of the kind one might associate with steam machinery. Aubry gradually brings the intensity level down as the piece enters its final minutes and as he does so the individual sounds come into clearer focus, even if only briefly. Track two unspools in a percussive rumble, rather reminiscent of the agitated rattle of an old car engine. Speaking voices and waves of abstract sound keep up a constant, unwavering churn throughout the piece until it too grinds to an abrupt halt. Montavon’s contribution to the project is in the form of a large fold-out poster or word-map whose French text is laid out in a spacious, rhythmical manner that reads like a visual counterpart to the sonic pieces. Images and sounds weave through the text to form a word-tapestry that complements Aubry’s material\u2014an alternate way, then, to \u2018listen‘ to the city.<\/p>\n link<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gruenrekorder.de\/Photos\/gruen_061\/front1.jpg\")
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