From 2016 to 2021, Attenuation Circuit organized a festival in their hometown, Augsburg, and a CD compilation release accompanied each festival. The concept was to have people work together and create a track and, at the festival, do a performance together. I have never been there, but it sounds like a friendly get-together and a socializing event. The name of these festivals was “r|e” so we now have a link on what to expect here: Duo’s or – in this case – threesomes creating music together when they had never worked together. I would question whether this was done with papers in a hat and a grab or if the combinations were carefully chosen. Because the first would add to the originality, the second would somehow guide or predict the outcome. “r|e” has five tracks, four of which are around the 12-minute mark, and one smuggles in an extra 4 minutes. The website states: File under sound art and ambient so let’s listen to see if it fits.
The first track is a collaboration by fourthousandblackbirds, Chelidon Frame and Terbeschikkingstelling entitled “Non au dégriffage, Atarassia, Bombardonmentsouplesse”. I don’t know if it’s meant to be some triptych, but there are three distinct parts, like an exquisite corpse track. I said that this is I.m.o. the best part of the CD. Even though the unity may not be what it was meant to be, the three parts form a solid piece with a continuous atmosphere.
Track two is a layer of heavily FX-ed field recordings alongside an occasional jazzy rhythm with a wind instrument improvising in the background. And if you read more of my reviews over the past years, you know how fond I am of wind instruments and jazz 😉 Track three sounds like it’s based on the sounds of woodblocks, delay and reverb in combination with jungle sounds and a toy instrument. And even though the track is spacious, it’s all too incoherent for my taste to become interesting. The fourth track is sadly the same, it sounds ok at the beginning, but it never really evolves into a stable composition. I have no doubt whatsoever that if the artists would work together a few times more something gorgeous would be created, but at this moment – because it’s all a matter of taste – it’s just not there.
The final track is by the only duo: Wilfried Hanrath & Jacob Audrey Taves. “20th Century Throw-Up” experiments with beats, noise and general weirdness. Here, too, the track is at moments incoherent, but with this sound palette, the incoherence adds to the atmosphere of the track. It’s a weird release if listened to at once. It may need a festival to work, with a little break in between and a couple of beers.
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