Blogiarhiiv

3/17/2019

Karras – Fernen (2006)




  • Electronic music 
  • Experimental electronica  
  • Organic electronica
  • Post-rock 
  • Glitchtronica 
  • Ambient 
  • Art music

Comment: Manrico Montero aka Karras aka Linga has issued a bunch of issues under such imprints as Mandorla, Rain, and EKO. Although the 7-notch outing came out from the latter French one and it had happened already 13 years ago while it is still actual due to its atmospheric beauty and fragile yet enchanting rhythmic structures and an adept synthesised touch between an organic feel and artsy succulent progressions. If you analyse it even more thoroughly you can see very austere sounds like glitches and hisses and distant echoes and fading reverberations coming out from the very bottom to be added to the whole mix. Furthermore, the Mexican artist is also not indifferent due to the dichotomy of noise and silence by providing immersive, sustainable pauses. If you wish it could be called a minor brother of Slowdive's Pygmalion (1995) or an alter ego of Tim Hecker's Haunt Me Haunt Me Do It Again (2001). Of course, it contains more electronics and less guitars than Pygmalion but its production and ideological level is analogous. Another branch of the thought is to recognise Pygmalion as one of the most seminal albums out of the 90s (which later on obviously influenced the music of such transgressive post-rock/ambient artists as Labradford, Transient Waves). The aforementioned excellent albums constitute a different approach to post-rock as it usually used to be – their crescendos are build upon on subdued, even obtuse progressions by shedding stepwise more light and adding scintillating elements with the intention to call forth epic impressions and stretch the dimensions of the soundscape in different directions. The apparent emotive apotheosis and majestic highlight of the issue is Dawn Chords (I) where a magniloquent ambient layer with the pointed motif is pushed through a backdrop of slightly fluttering crackling and swirling static. In temporal terms – approximately ten years ago such a kind of album were not tagged as post-rock or somehow related to it yet but now it seems to have clear-cut connotations with an experimental rock scene (one can draw parallels upon a historical event which also can be considered adequately from the distance). Such a sort of description and intention and thrive could be attributed to the music of Fernando Corona aka Murcof, allegedly the most well-known Mexican artist. In a word, an impressionistic top tier as if it were aurally painted somewhere in a remote Pacific island in the past.