textura

Albums
2562
3ofmillions
3 Seconds Of Air
Monty Adkins
Agoria
Anduin
Natalie Beridze TBA
Black Eagle Child
Boduf Songs
Bodzin Vs Romboy
Build
Marco Carola
Blake Carrington
Codes In The Clouds
Dreamsploitation
Federico Durand
Elektro Guzzi
Emanuele Errante
FiRES WERE SHOT
Rick Frystak
Garin & Gobart
Gerard and Graydon
Kraig Grady
Guthrie & Budd
Marcus Intalex
Jumpel
Slavek Kwi
March
Maschine
Melodium
Alton Miller
Obsil
Phaedra
Semiomime
Shaula
Kate Simko
Sleepingdog
Nobuto Suda
Moritz Von Oswald Trio

Compilations / Mixes
5ZIG
20 F@#&ING Years
Michelangelo Antonioni
Fabric 56: Derrick Carter

EPs
Agoria featuring Kid A
Aleph
A Story of Rats
Orlando B.
Ceremony
Cex
Matthew Dear
Entia Non & Tanner Menard
Nick Kuepfer
Clem Leek
Mat Le Star
Lulacruza
Paul Lyman
Moss
Resampled Part 1
Resampled Part 2
Snoretex
Subeena

Slavek Kwi / Artificial Memory Trace: Collection 5
Gruenrekorder

Collection 5 is a rather enigmatic recording, even by Gruenrekorder standards. It's the latest in an ongoing series of field recordings-based releases from the label, each one of which arrives in a silver case accompanied by a modicum of information. This particular one is the brainchild of sound artist Slavek Kwi, who was born in Czechoslovakia (as it was then known) and since 2000 has been based in Ireland, and has operated under the name Artificial Memory Trace since the early ‘90s and issued a dozen albums. Part of his current work involves experimental sound workshops with autistic children and those with learning disabilities.

The liner notes of Collection 5 reveal that “(a)ll particles of reality [were] recorded and created by Slavek Kwi in various dimensions of time-like-space” and that no additional information—aside from the words “Perception. No cognition. Listen.”—is available for the edition. Not surprisingly, then, Kwi's primary focus is upon perceptual phenomena and how it determines one's experience of reality; he also seemingly encourages the listener to experience the material as pure sound rather than get bogged down in over-analyzing it and sussing out its origins. The recording itself is an embarrassment of riches in sonic terms, with Kwi integrating into its eighty-minute running time all manner of sound, be it animal-, machine-, and/or human-generated. Though it's occasionally challenging to identify the sounds, there's little doubt Kwi's drawn upon a multitude of sonic phenomena (much of it derived from site-specific recordings) for the recording's thirty-two untitled tracks, twenty-one of which are under the three-minute mark. Glitchy electronic noises, door slams, monkey howls, electric saws, buzzing insects, bird caws, amazon rain forest chatter, and a cornucopia of other sounds are stitched together into an endlessly mutating electro-acoustic sound-painting that's travelogue-like yet also fairly regulated, making for a ride that's admittedly long and obviously scenic but also generally smooth. In this case, the ideal listeners would be those who prefer their collages parked midway between determinacy and indeterminacy.

April 2011