ETUDE RECORDS

Etude Records is a label established in Barcelona in 2006 and focusing on experimental, improvisation, field recordings, minimal music and every kind of obscure sound archives. Its catalogue features a remarkable number of international artists from every corner of the underground experimental underworld.

Below are brief reviews of some of their latest outputs. For more info and audio samples, visit the label's webpage and myspace profile at the following addresses:

Website: http://www.etuderecords.com

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/etuderecords

MIKE HANSEN

"At Every Point"

Etude Records - 2007

CD

Mike Hansen arises from Toronto and is known as the most representative exponent of the so-called "turntablism", a particular sound art that uses the turntable directly as main instrument and not simply as a source of sound. Combining prepared turntables with acoustic instruments such as cowbells and harmonicas, as well as unusual percussions like Vietnamese drums, this Canadian noise-manipulator compiles five tracks on "At Every Point", showing slightly different approaches. The results achieved are not too far from well-known names such as Nurse With Wound or Organum, the latter especially evoked in the powerful "Tidying Up After", and in the obsessive "Once Held A Lighter High In The Sky", only marginally smoothened by the final rock 'n' roll-sounding drum solo.

Improvisation, found sounds and noises, minimalist and suspended atmospheres are what the listener can expect to find on this Mike Hansen CD. An interesting listening experience, well-worth the time and patience you need to dedicate to every minute of disc's running time, in order to grasp each single detail.

- Simon V.

Website: http://www.mike-hansen.ca

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mikehansenmusic

LNGTCHÉ

"Music For An Untitled Film By T. Zarkkof"

Etude Records - 2007

CD

The bizarre moniker Lngtché is a disguise used by Pau Torres, a Catalonian sound experimentalist who collaborates with the Toronto scene of "turntablism" and other artists of the Etude Records rooster. "Music For An Untitled Film by T. Zarkkof" is conceived as a soundtrack to an imaginary film, possibly shot in a dark, humid and unsettling environment. The long, single track featured on the CD develops among disturbing noises, dissonant cacophonies, subtle minimal drones and what could sound like distant, very distant distorted voice samples. In the first part the sound of water is a constant presence, and suggests to the listener's imagination shots of vast, half-flooded underground tunnels or smelly and dark sewers, while the second part is dominated by squeezing and creaking frequencies, more akin to the night hunt of an android patrol. The atmosphere of the latter is not too distant from Current 93's "Nature Unveiled", even if, of course, without the Gregorian / vocal element and its oppressing medieval feeling.

Even without sounding excessively striking or revealing, this imaginary film soundtrack by Lngtché is an intense and well-worth listening during its full running time, as its evocative and mesmerizing power can't be certainly denied.

- Simon V.

Website: http://www.pautorres.org

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lngthe

TOMASZ KRAKOWIAK

"La Ciutat Ets Tu"

Etude Records - 2007

CD

Another Toronto-based figure, and not by chance often collaborating with Mike Hansen, is percussionist and composer Tomasz Krakowiak. His "La Ciutat Ets Tu" contains seven tracks of wild and fascinating noise collages, where the percussive element comes combines with minimalistic yet quite cacophonic soundscapes, and again there's more than one connection with the likes of Organum or Noise-Maker's Fifés, but surely the most suitable comparison is with Z'ev, the grandmaster of industrial percussions. Indeed, the use of metal thuds and reverberated sounds created by placed microphones creates small dissonant audio pictures with not much to envy to the Californian prime-mover.

That of Tomasz Krakowiak is definitely a name to note down on your personal watch-list. He also assembled a work of free improvisation and experiments of musique concrète in collaboration with Mike Hansen, "The Confines Of Power", released as mp3 files by Frozen Elephants Music.

- Simon V.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tomaszkrakowiak

ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO

"Épicycle"

Etude Records - 2007

CD

Portuguese artist involved in many different projects, such as free improvisation duo Cremaser, independent collective for contemporary art 22a, and several collaborations, Alfredo Costa Monteiro releases now one of his darkest and most fascinating visions, "Épicycle", a single composition of about 36 minutes that lives out of the contrast between a deep, distant and pitch black drone revolving in the background, and several sudden, powerful noise explosions that appear unexpectedly during the listening. The oppressing and suffocating atmosphere of this gloomy music is able to match the unsettling visions evoked by the northern dark ambient school of Cold Meat Industry, or the "death industrial" rituals of Archon Satani and the likes. Dark underground caves populated by inhuman dwellers, huge abandoned factories and ocean deeps are the most suitable environments to be described by Alfredo's music.

"Épicycle" is an outstanding work, an intense and shaking listening experience that stands high above many dozens of mediocre dark ambient clones and pathetic industrial-wannabes crowding the underground since some 7 or 8 years. It's singular, but also a bit discouraging, to think that many fans of such scene would rush buying any CD with a gothic artwork and black-metallesque name, thinking to find the most incredible darkness in it, while maybe ignoring an artist like Alfredo Costa Monteiro, just because he's not presenting himself in an "extreme" way. Don't be as narrow-sighted as them, and get hold of this black sinister underground pearl.

- Simon V.

Website: http://www.linnomable.com