Le Mal D’Archive is a project at the turn of independent electronic and sound design that sees its distinctive feature in the intersection between two apparently irreconcilable worlds such as experimental music on the one hand and the “chanson” for the more harmonious and Matrix melodic heritage of Italian music on the other.

Pharadigmatic elements of Bapttisti (first of all, a master of music degree in commercial attention to the universe of sound and harmony), as well as Fabrizio DeAndrè, Leò Ferrè, George Brassens, Massimo Volume, and many others is mentioned as tutelar figures, fragmented and dissolved into a homogenous sound magma and inscrutable, but not for this lack of balance as large moments of pleasantness. The structures of cyclic ballads of popular music, once cut, destructured, with the ring out and “work” become sound fragment, bearer of spaces and places strong connotations. These capsules image-time tools that Le mal d’archive disclaim spatially, in many molds.

“‘Histoires de Plage’ is like a gem set between two monoliths, as a thing that becomes the first sweet, then strong, then languid and desperate, the various forms of memory, which in this project become malleable sound field.”

 

Le Mal D’Archive

dnasnow/mouseup are Zan Hoffman and Rinus van Alebeek.

dnasnow/mouseup started in Barcelona through a chance meeting between Rinus van Alebeek and Zan Hoffman at the LEM-festival 2000, where the latter performed. I (= Rinus van Alebeek) was working on my book. Later on in the still fresh century the novel got censored for several political reasons. While this censorship marked the end of my official status as a writer, the encounter with Zan opened up a complete new era in my career.

I soon found out that Zan was one of the key figures in the cassette culture, and had collaborative works with more then 200 sound artists worldwide. The encounter during some sessions in a worn down roof apartment in the very heart of Barcelona resulted in the formation of a duo called dnasnow/mouseup. Our collaboration continued in Valencia, some weeks later, where we did an illegal concert in one of the cones of the Calatrava-complex. Recordings from those days came together in dnasnow/mouseup 1 – 6 which were compiled by Zan.

In the summer and autumn of the year 2001 I stayed for three months in Zan’s hometown in Louisville, Kentucky. The outcome of that visit were twelve more releases by dnasnow/mouseup, of which ‘7′ is the first. Listening back to it, several stages in my life come to mind. The spoken word passages bear immediate links to places and persons, very dear to me, and completely unknown to those who read these lines.

But another thing occurred to me. Besides the amazing variety of sounds, and the drive behind it, I once again was struck by the uncomplicated communication between Zan and me. But ‘7′ might also contain information for future sonic archaeologists. It was in 2001, more or less seven years ago, that the US was struck by a so-called terrorist attack. While politicians and media talked about “a world that never would be the same again” we worked on recordings and site specific performances. In ‘7′ one could recognize the aftermath of this attack, and a visionary audio portrait of a country in transition.

I, for one, to describe ‘7′ prefer the epic stillness of a land after the flood. Little and bigger objects slowly float by on their way to grand rapids. The roofs of houses stand praying in the mirrorlike waters. Each little thing is animated, speaks with a different voice. The big rains, the roaring of the invading waters have gone, but if you listen close enough, they are there. Of course each one of you might hear a different story. Ours is from long ago.

“We are the curators of the Natural History Museum of Sound. We will look for, involve and invite hometapers and homelabelers alike to take possesion of the rooms of the Museum. We will create sounds from nowhere, and turn the alphabet inside out, to finally find the words with those holes in them. We will find music you would not dare to call music.”

 

dnasnow/mouseup

Leo Alves Vieira is a Brazilian composer, Born in February 13th, 1978. Composer of many soundtrack pieces, for theatrical and movie plays since 1994, Leo Alves Vieira has been writing for many other instrument formations in the ‘academic’ scene since 2001. His debut as a composer was at the XV Biennial of Brazilian Contemporary Music, 2003, with the piece “Estilhaços-Constante Volta ao Indeterminado” (2002) for acoustic and electronic instruments, played by OFELEX. His debut album “Sounds of the Orange Coloured Forest” was released in september 2006 by Pralaya Records, from Brooklyn/NY.

Leo Alves Vieira

Après plusieurs expériences dans le domaine de la musique improvisée et minimaliste, Joséphine Müller s’embarque maintenant dans un projet de construction sonore à partir de l’univers électroacoustique, toujours en improvisation. L’idée est de réunir dans une pièce les sons concrets manipulés et une incarnation possible du “swing” jazziste. Pour cela, elle compte avec la collaboration de son compagnon sonore depuis plusieurs années Ian L., qui se dédie à la simple improvisation sur des objets ordinaires et guitare. La Main Traumatique représente l’Automne de Fleuret.

Joséphine M

The Death Sound started as a project between Alex and Matt in late summer of 2007. The canonical “birthday” of The Death Sound is August 24th, the first of three days of the Roman Mundus Patet, upon which the gate to the underworld was opened that the spirits of the sanctified dead might commune, dine, and celebrate with the living.

In trust, The Death Sound has its origins as far back as the late 90s and early 00s, when Matt was recording minimalist electronic and IDM as the Bitter Poets, and Alex was aware of Matt’s programming work (indeed, they even attended college together), but realization of TDS would be not come until late spring of 2007. The idea behind TDS was initially to bring a retro-Industrial sound to Arkansas, but it soon become clear that TDS wasn’t retro, would never be retro, and would be better off doing something new and their own.

“This collection serves to show where TDS has come over the last year, bringing you our earliest recordings and the show that marked our first anniversary, and perhaps to show where we may be going in the future.”

The Death Sound

Slutimids!! is Naal Stayn’s (anab L, trendy store, KZSE, lipstandärd, perplexions, tattooed intestine, while coldblue…) side project, created in autumn 2005. It’s a lab to experiment strange concrete shapes and squeak things without any Post Punk pression or Cold Wave stereotypes. An approach of Anti Wave to reach further steps on each new album.

“I just remember the album was a serious joke. A joke because originally I wanted to criticize the stereotypes of “french cold wave” (”grey” being the cliché of cold wave). But it was then a serious project as art surrounded the joke to create & experiment my own anti-formula. Slap bass is generally “cool” or quite “fun” music. My will was to make sad and chill the “funk” technique for instance. The title was a deconstruction about the “grey” stereotype in cold wave. I tried to use and deform the cold aesthetic to find my own, thanks to a mix of toy synthesizers and chill basses.”

Naal Stayn