SONIC UPDATE – Conference For One

Zeromoon

A duo formed by Nikolaus Gerszewski and Gustavo Aguilar, Sonic Update debuts with a net release that explores the social aspects of a performance’s interaction between a human and a laptop – minus the latter. In fact, all we hear in the 37 minutes of Conference For One derives from various kinds of percussion instruments, harmonicas, slide whistle, cardboard tubes and “the crumpling of a newspaper”. Composer Gerszewski’s challenge (namely creating emissions similar to the ones generated by a computer via the above mentioned means) is not exactly victorious, as the purely acoustic quality of the sources is too evident; but the deriving performance – by Aguilar alone – corresponds to an outstanding piece of music per se, without any kind of intellectual connection. It starts unhurriedly and in absolute rarefaction, then the points begin to be gradually connected, one after another, initiating a series of repetitions and cycles that include irony, musicality and sense of spacing in large doses. Sounds that appear and disappear in a sort of see-saw, producing a wonderful poor man’s minimalism of sorts. The spontaneity of this process renders it akin to slow breathing during a sleeping phase and, indeed, the slide whistle makes me think about someone snoring sonorously. But every single timbre utilized results absolutely nice to these ears. An unassuming and truly lovely work, highly recommended to anyone.