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So(E)nology Raffaele Mariconte

cat: gal 0190
date:  21 sept 2016
time:  15:13

download at archive.org

So(E)nology  The transformations that occur when wine and sound combine have recently been object of analysis by some sonic artists such as Jo Burzynska (Oenosthesia project, 2012) and Enrico Ascoli with his installation "Auspicio" together with Hilario Isola at MAXXI Museum in Rome (2015).

Raffaele Mariconte is an acoustic engineer and member of the Interferenze new arts festival team that has enhanced this exploration inviting these artists to develop their ideas during some residencies in the past years. He's also originally from Guardia Sanframondi, a village in South Italy whose culture, tradition and economy is strongly tied to wine and vineyards.

In “So(E)nology”, Mariconte presents his research on microsound and resonances related with wine-making developed in his village and surroundings through recording the fermentation of wine with contact mics and hydrophones. The aim of this work is to emphasize some specific features of the microsounds which this research is focusing on.

The temporary results of this ongoing exploration are now available in this work, that both includes and is created from wine, immersing the listener in a mysterious and liminal soundscape made by changing timbres and frequencies, where to discover different and unexpected ways of experiencing oenology.

Notes from the artist This work explores some microsonic structures and resonances of winemaking and vineyards. Most tracks were recorded with hydrophones and piezo mics. Editing and mastering has tried to enhance as possible the original characters of recorded microsounds.

Dedicated to my rural area of origin (Samnium).
 

Creative Commons License

So(E)nology Raffaele Mariconte is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.galaverna.org.

REVIEWS

A CLOSER LISTEN

Oenophiles love the sounds of wine: the corkscrew, the pop, the pour, the clink.  Many musical works have been produced using these sounds.  But travel deeper, and one will find other sounds associated with the product and the process.  In their new works, Raffaele Mariconte and Alan Courtis & Cyrus Pireh use different approaches and focus on different angles, but their works complement each other. Raffaele Mariconte‘s So(E)nology concentrates on the fermentation of wine, and of the two works, holds the more recognizable sounds.  These are the bubbles, the pops, and the charges associated with the process that turns the liquid into something tempting and tart.  It’s unusual to hear hydophones used in this way, dipped in vats rather than streams; when one hears the crunchy electronic textures, one recalls the brine shrimp of Jana Winderen’s works.  This is an entirely different world, yet it plays by some of the same rules. Mariconte edits his recordings in order to bring out their hidden flavors and darker hues.  By concentrating on small segments and snippets, he highlights different tonalities.  So(E)nology often sounds like a chemical lab, filled with white-coated scientists, gurgling test tubes and bunsen burners, yet the fermentation process is far more benign.  The spell is briefly broken only once, on “Tank”: taps on tanks with an invisible wink, an endearing reminder of the human element.