[reviews] afe067lcd
alessandro fogar: surface studies #1-#2

A visual artist, composer and multimedia/software designer, Alessandro Fogar has previously released works on labels like S'Agita and Aua, and here presents two lengthy works in the ongoing series "focused on the study of surfaces".

"Sand" and "Streams" are both based on field recordings (from a small island near his native Grado and from river Torre respectively) and digital synthesis/manipulation tecniques, plus a filtered melodica on the former track.

Water, sand, pebbles are, as expected, the main sounds, both kept recognizable and manipulated via (my guess) reverses, time-stretching, eq, etc.

Both tracks, the second one in particular, are very quiet and fairly repetitive, but in a positive sense. I've used a lot of water-based field recordings myself and I think I've had a similar input: rather than looking for any dramatic development, which would probably even sound jarring, one is tempted to let everything - literally! - flow, and focus on microscopic details.

Fogar writes he's inspired, among other, by Bernhard Günther and John Duncan, but also, and I think it shows beneath the surface (whoops), by Morton Feldman.

[Eugenio Maggi]