LARS ÅKERLUND / ERYCK ABECASSIS
Falls
BUY CD €13 + SHIPPING
1. Rauk
2. Aukr
3. Ukra
4. Kaur
5. Aruk
6. Falls
7. Arku
8. Krua (Hidden Track)
CATALOG: mikroton cd 87
FORMAT: CD
EDITION: 300
RELEASE: October 2019
Lars Åkerlund & Eryck Abecassis dark energy i, dark energy ii,
midi-controllers, modular synthesizers, ableton live
Executive producers: Kurt Liedwart and Sergey Kolosov
Design: Kurt Liedwart
Photography: Sergey Kolosov / kolosov.photo
Credits to: VICC (Visby International Centre for Composers), EMS (Electronic Music Studio, Stockholm)
Thanks to: Kurt Liedwart, Sten Melin (VICC), Jesper Elén (VICC)
Eryck Abecassis and Lars Åkerlund started their Falls project to investigate the possibilities of achieving instability with synthesizers and electronic instruments. With only one dramatic change in their strategy: they employed both the same branded instruments to do that and it worked.
Eryck Abecassis is a French musician who has been working in diverse areas of music production: producing his own albums and works for chamber orchestras, theaters, installations and cinema. He got commissions from such institutions like INA-GRM, Radio France and Institut Français and played at many festivals like Amplitude, Presences, IRCAM. Now he mostly works with modular synthesizer and computer.
Lars Åkerlund is a sound artist and composer and performer of electronic as well as electroacoustic music hailing from Sweden. With a classical training, he also works in the music underground scene. He founded bands such as P.I.T.T. (among others, with Zbigniew Karkowski) and the Lucky People Center and recently the LLLSD (Lab for Life-Long Sound Dysfunctions) which toured in South East Asia, China and Japan during 2018 and 2019.
He performs solo and in collaboration with other artists, film makers and choreographers. Åkerlund lives in Stockholm working in the studio with computers, controllers and live electronic equipment such as an amplified monochord.
In eight tracks of “Falls” they drive you to the state of ecstasy. Working with a minimal and an accurate attention for the structures, they gain such a level when they lose control of their two Doepfer Dark Energies that it starts hypnotizing the brains. Subliminal thoughts, experiences and sonic hallucinations may suddenly erupt to the surface. Take care when using these powerful and uncompromising musical dream machine which will disorientate you in its subversive sonic masses and spectrum.
REVIEWS
Mikroton does their releases in a whole bunch, so some for this week and a big one for next week, or maybe the one after. We start with the work between Lars Akerlund and Eryck Abecassis. From both of these gentlemen, I reviewed a bunch of solo works before but also works in collaboration with others. Most notable is that both have worked with Kasper T. Toeplitz. Lars Akerlund in a duo called Inert/e and Abecassis is part of the group Kernel, performing works by Toeplitz. I believe the latter is a bass player and the first a composer of electronic music. The credits on this release read as 'MIDI controllers, modular synthesizer and Ableton Live', to be used by the two of them. There are seven pieces here, divided over sixty-two minutes. The shortest being three minutes and the longest is thirty minutes. Although it is not mentioned, I can imagine they went into a studio together, going through the material in a rather improvised way, but only as a starting point to generate sound material. Once there is a whole stack of that, the work that we call composing starts. It is hard to say to what extent they edit their material, and also how much of this contains bits and pieces from various sessions. Maybe it is all-straightforward, and each mixed piece is a session by itself, and in the mix, there is the composition, the dialogue, if you will, between the sounds. Just as well, I can imagine they move their bits all around and look for the perfect dialogue within everything that they recorded. I am sure this is just I trying to imagine working processes between Akerlund and Abecassis and probably not a major interest to anyone. The outcome is what counts here and being somewhat familiar with their previous work, I am not surprised that this is some heavy type of electronic music. Noise, however, is not the preferred genre here, as they know how to be quiet, as the proof in 'Aruk'. That's the longest piece here and it moves from inaudible to loud and from drones to cracks and back again. This is something to play with considerable volume so that the quiet parts get the attention they deserve and the loud section form this pleasantly oppressive wall of sound, ripping your speakers gentle apart (almost). This is an excellent and one that should not only appeal to modular aficionados.
Auch der Firework-gestählte Schwede LARS ÅKERLUND (ex-P.I.T.T. & The Dreamers, Lab for Life-Long Sound Dysfunctions) und der mit Kernel & Sleaze Art toeplitzierte ERYCK ABECASSIS verstehen ihr Falls (mikroton cd 87) als musikalische Traummaschine. Sie betreiben sie mit Doepfer Dark Energy, Midi-Controllers, Modular Synthesizers, Ableton Live. In tuckernden, hämmernden, furzelig pixelnden Impulsketten, mit dunklem Unter-futter, stürmischem Andrang, so richtig auf Touren. Als surrende, abrupt sirrende Spuren über schnellem Puls und ohne. Fein gekörnt, zahnrädrig wooshend, anschwellend und abreißend, rumpelig oder alarmistisch. In acht Variationen. Darunter 'Aruk' mit allein 30 ½ Min., das ganz allmählich zum gewaltigen Pulsar anschwillt, aber implodiert und von Schlägen getroffen lange nur kleinlaut weitermorpht und brodelt, bis es doch noch zu einer zweiten, gewaltig brausenden Klangballung reicht. 'Falls' rotiert mit spitzen Frequenzen auf brodeligem Sud, ein dunkles Ufo kreuzt und vergeht, der brodelige Fond überdauert. 'Arku' dünnt zuletzt aus zu elektronischem Grillengezirpe, wobei die elektronische Virulenz die natürliche überschreibt, bis auch sie verdämmert.
Il rumore non è uno solo. È un ampio campo di eventi acustici, complesso, diversificato e aperto a elaborazioni diverse. Lo dimostra la lunga serie di pubblicazioni di genere noise promosse dalla label russa Mikroton. Una di queste è ‘Falls’ del duo formato dallo svedese Lars Akerlund e dal francese Eryck Abecassis . Nelle sei tracce dell’album i due sound artists scelgono una qualità sonora e con modulatori MIDI e sintetizzatori la elaborano in diverse sfumature, esaltando le tessiture timbriche e le loro proprietà tattili e ritmiche. Alcuni dei titoli dei brani (in primis quello che dà il titolo all’album, Falls) sembrano evocare l’idea che la sintesi sonora ritragga l’effetto acustico di fenomeni naturali. Non è certo un ascolto facile, tutt’altro. Ci vuole pazienza, dedizione, a volte anche un po’ di rassegnazione. È una musica concreta che, a mio avviso, richiede un complemento: immagini in movimento, se non reali immaginarie. O almeno una birra.