Yiorgis Sakellariou: field recordings, processing, etc.
Unanticipated discoveries can come about as we revisit sounds that were left untasted – when not altogether forgotten – since when we handled them at first, either physically or perceptively. This is what happened to Yiorgis Sakellariou, who usually hates looking back at what he’s already heard or used. This time the infrequent choice of fishing in the archives yielded consequences which were deemed serviceable for publication; to this we heartily agree. Divided in two extended segments, 41:38 is a downreaching album of field recordings and coexisting moods juxtaposed with semiconscious exactitude. The episodic vacancy of the acoustic imagery opposes to dramatic closeups of selected “violent” emissions (for example, the clangorous braking of a train). The recognition of this contrast is presumably the necessary code to deliver the mechanism of retention from the inflexibility that would, in a way, spoil the party of reminiscence.
Mecha / Orga is a principled assembler. The outstanding attributes of his work emerge all over the program, including environments detected elsewhere, perhaps in different forms and shades. The compositional aspect is approached with the right dose of discernment, particularly in regard to a functional sequencing of the events. A cadenced impulse can be followed by a ferrous efflorescence, then we’re conquered by an accumulation of remotely resonating partials that may derive from a strong air current (or a processed espresso machine, depending on the point of view). We’re not given a surplus of handles to grip at, thus avoiding the inclination to guess, classify – and ultimately degrade – the components of a process of aural coalescence better comprehended as an evocative integrity, accepting its intrinsic coherences and (mild) contradictions without extravagant speculations.
MASSIMO RICCI. TOUCHING EXTREMES. 