Re:Coimbra @c (Pedro Tudela & Miguel Carvalhais)

cat: gal 0260
date:  jun  2019
time: 51:09

download at archive.org

A dérive through Coimbra’s old town, along a path built from soundmarks of familiar spaces at unknown times and situations. 

An exercise of discovering Coimbra’s sounds through peeling strata deposited for fifteen centuries in the area between the river banks of Mondego, the narrow streets of Baixa, and the stairs towards Almedina and the University. An integration of memory, references, history and lore, in an exploration of a space-time that is not our own.
Luís Antero’s field recordings, realistic captures of the mundane, were displaced and recontextualised in a composition that makes new connections, makes them visible, and builds an extra-ordinary new sonic space that pulsates and breaths as the city, and that like the city has a life, and a flow

Bio Pedro Tudela e Miguel Carvalhais collaborate as @c since 2000. In 2003 they founded the Crónica label, and have since been publishing experimental electronic music and sound art. They have released more than 20 albums in labels as Crónica, Baskaru, Monochrome Vision, Galaverna, and Feld, and they have performed live extensively, favouring acousmatic and immersive presentations. They often collaborate with other musicians and artists and have developed a number of site-specific sound installations.
Pedro Tudela is an artist and as assistant professor at the visual arts department of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto.
Miguel Carvalhais is a designer, musician, and an assistant professor at the design department of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto.

www.at-c.org
www.carvalhais.org
www.pedrotudela.org

Thank you:
Catarina Pires and José Miguel Pereira
Luís Antero
The team at Convento de São Francisco, Coimbra
José Crúzio

Creative Commons License

Re:Coimbra by @c (Pedro Tudela & Miguel Carvalhais) 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

Drifting almost falling

Technically not a single with its fifty-one minute length, the piece is a rather chaotically dense slice of electroacoustic sound art that fuses all manner of bustling circular electronics, field recordings, granular synthesis and pulses of sound all combine to create a hypnotic piece. According to the duo the piece is “An exercise of discovering Coimbra’s sounds through peeling strata deposited for fifteen centuries in the area between the river banks of Mondego, the narrow streets of Baixa, and the stairs towards Almedina and the University. An integration of memory, references, history and lore, in an exploration of a space-time that is not our own.“ For people who are not familiar with the environment that inspires it, it can take the listener on a journey where elements are captured then manipulated onto a sonic fabric that contains some disparate sounds. A personal favourite section being the Church organ (which is quite fitting seeing it the piece was premiered at Church of the Convent of São Francisco, Coimbra) that is layered creating a swell of sound before transforming into a woozy drunken soundscape. The piece plays with sound and texture moving through pieces that are clearly formed into a fabric, while other parts are naked and raw. There are times where it feels like a tightly composed piece (like the first ten minutes) and then there are sections that make it come as a travelogue piece and make you wonder how much of it is Antero’s original field recordings or @c’s painting with sound. For lovers of electroacoustic/sound art/ambient there is plenty to digest and absorb over the fifty one minutes. Personally for me, the second two thirds of the piece where it is less chaotic work better, but that is purely because it is more suited to my taste.