so I turn my attention to the latest release from two of my favorite artists in the genre, collaborating for the very first time together: Richard Chartier and Yann Novak. First of all, let me congratulate the two on finally working on a collaborative release – it’s always a pleasure to see two great minds come together and produce something that each can be proud of alone…
Undefined is a truly somber work. If extreme drone and minimalism are your thing, then you’re in for a treat. Oscillating in the mid-range frequencies, the tones remind me of a Tibetan singing bowls or reverberating crystal wine glasses. At times a higher pitch will enter the stereo-field, cycling between the channels, simulating a self-inflicted tinnitus via its sonic hallucination. The forty-minute piece feels warm and analog in timbre – like a soft wind blowing over a modular synth. A closer listen may reveal a few more additive sounds, but then again you may be simply hearing things that are not there as you’re slowly pulled into a tunnel of void…
—Headphonecommute.com
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It is perhaps an exercise in stating the obvious to suggest that most music strives to grab and hold on to the attention of listeners, using devices such as pounding rhythms, catchy choruses, or strong harmonies to achieve this goal. This fits in well with leading evolutionary theories of music, which propose that music evolved in order to help us communicate information, attract potential mates, or establish and confirm social hierarchies; with such goals in mind, being able to shout louder than everyone else, or have one’s message remembered hours or days later, is clearly advantageous. What then should we make of music that seems intent on avoiding attention, on remaining inscrutable to perception?
Richard Chartier and Yann Novak’s new release Undefined could be taken as an example of such an approach, one that aims to stay under the perceptual radar, making only the lightest and most indistinct sensory impressions. The record’s single long track is very quietly mastered, and most of the action (of which there is a lot, though much of it not apparent at first listen) takes place at the extremities of the audible frequency spectrum, where the precision of audition is perhaps at its vaguest. Deep, rumbling bass and very high-pitched, narrow hisses and whistles flesh out an amorphous and shapeless mass, something roiling and tumultuous and far from static, though careful attention and good speakers or headphones are required to follow the flux. Some sounds sit unnoticed in the mix for minutes on end, as if camouflaged, their presence only becoming perceptible once the background they had blended into falls away. It’s interesting to note that increasing the volume does little to dissipate the fog of elusiveness and quietness that hangs over the record, that perhaps is the record. It is almost as if Undefined doesn’t want to be heard, or at least not easily.
So what exactly might be the purpose of making this music, of presenting such audition-shy sounds as music? To my mind it would seem an act of mimesis, re-presenting common phenomena that also sit on the edges of perception: the tingle of electricity that precedes a storm, voices in the distance, or a ship disappearing over the horizon. These phenomena often seem to rub against the grain of the rest of experience, as if cut from a different sort of time, sudden droplets of intensity in which all the senses are pushed to their maximum alertness and sensitivity. Undefined has a similar effect, at least on me; I hold my breath and strain to hear. And this brings a rush of recognition, of a bodily state of awareness as much as of a sound. Of course, this isn’t necessarily how another listener might experience the record, or even how Chartier and Novak intended it to be experienced. But what I mean to suggest here is that its vagueness may well be motivated, rather than being ambiguous simply for ambiguity’s sake (the latter being a form of semiotic free-for-all that often serves merely to cover a general lack of substance). And it is one way of accounting for the power of a music that draws the awareness of the listener out to meet it without ever shouting “Pay attention!”. In any event, one gets the sense that the composers too are straining to hear, and that the music develops out of this highly focused act of listening. Undefined offers no clear and unambiguous message to please the evolutionists, but there is still a lot to experience and to think about, and the impression it makes is all the more lasting for its subtlety.
—Fluid Radio
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Undefined is the new splendid and intensively evocative electronic release published by the Italian based label Farmacia901 (launched a couple of years before by the inter-media artist and sound designer Fabio Perletta). For new listeners let say that Farmacia901 delivers an original catalog of beautifully packaged albums whose musical register reveals a cross between “new simplicity” (minimalist-poststructural tendencies in “process music”), kinetic-cinematic ambient and sound sculptures. Undefined is a reunion between two of the most influential artists in the modern days of droning ambient soundscapes. Richard Chartier is a renowned artist mostly appreciated for his sound-visual installations at various contemporary art galleries, for his prolific but remarkable solo and collaborative works in the tonal-droney minimal sounding spectrum. Yann Novak published a handful of soloing efforts on his own label Dragon’s Eye Recordings as well as for several independent labels (Hibernate among others). His musical signature is largely specialized in timeless-sonic sound structures which are psycho-acoustically powerful. I firstly discovered this artist thanks to the excellent deep minimal ambient album he recently signed on Farmacia901. Developed as one long title, Undefined is a resonating-sinuous droning sound tapestry which demonstrates a totally absorbing exploration through infinitely subtle waving tones and micro interferences. Massive buzzing droned-out work which defies the physical dimension of time. A notable album, definitely recommended for followers of Alvin Lucier, Bernhard Günter, John Oswald’s hauntingly sonic and undulating spectral electro-acoustic experiments.
—Igloo Magazine
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… an imperceptible drone that is built with a few layers of sound that are intertwined. Some emit an acute and thin sound wave while others unfold to areas of greater breadth and hint at gentle soundscapes. Undefined is disturbing and at the same time invites the listener to a deep listening.
—Loop.cl
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it appears to comprise three movements, sounding like someone deeply weighing his options. It long maintains a minimal but brassy, metallic ring that hints at impenetrability, an inability to warmly embrace the place, until a decidedly softer but brighter tone begins to melt down resistance and a decision, however apprehensively, is made. A coda – humming hydroelectric transmitters or singing crickets – hints at the promise of a comfy bed with cool sheets on a warm but not necessarily restful night.
—Avant Music News
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Sur une piste unique de près de quarante minutes, Undefined force l’écoute et le respect, en travaillant la porosité du corps aux échappées du spectre sonore.
—Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
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Undefined explores the fragility of sound. Richard Chartier and Yann Novak master this art throughout the track. The sound feels surprisingly warm throughout the duration. Soothing tones appear to shimmer somewhere on the horizon. Like the horizon there seems to be more right beyond the revealed sound, like the sound is simply shimmering something lovely. Occasionally the two of them reveal these many charms that linger beneath the surface. When those moments happen it is worth a great deal.
Space defines the sound. Though clearly digital there is a tenderness that keeps the feeling surprisingly human. Influence from Eliane Radigue is apparent. Like her work there is a deliberate slow pace to the proceedings. Classical leanings too are apparent as the work settles into several movements. For the first ten minutes or so the sound appears to guide. Nearly translucent in texture it hovers with barely any bass frequencies. Around the seventeen minute a bass frequency arrives and it greatly changes the entire perspective of the track.
By the second half of the track there’s a greater sense of human intervention. Gone is the calm of the first half. Anxiety begins to take form in the latter half. Elements of a more natural world begin to overwhelm the placid calm of the high-pitched sustained frequencies. Melody forms from this approach, an epic sustained melody with an extraordinarily gradual progression into a worried tone. At the last moments of the track the sound appears to evaporate into the air. It is a fitting, sweet end to a complex diverse and demur track.
—beachsloth.tumblr.com
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Si hay algo en el arte que definitivamente se enriquece en grande sin necesidad de conceptos, es el sonido. La simpleza de la creación no necesariamente radica en la estética lograda para una obra, sino también en el proceso mismo de creación y colaboración entre más que artistas, oyentes. Un fiel ejemplo de ello es Undefined, una composición de Richard Chartier y Yann Novak publicada en Farmacia901.
Se trata de una pieza de casi 40 minutos de duración en la cual se tejen un sin fin de texturas delicadas y minimalistas, como bien lo saben hacer ambos artistas cuyo nicho es precisamente la reducción y la apropiación directa de lo sutil y simple para desembocar en complejas experiencias no necesariamente en cuanto a lo conceptual, a lo rígido y lo definido, sino ante la profundidad de la escucha misma. Cada trozo de sonido que se mezcla entre sí, genera una atmósfera especial donde en muchas ocasiones no se siente lo mínimo y se puede encontrar algo muy extenso, quizá infinito, en cada uno de los sonidos, como si mediante la escucha pudiéramos recorrer puertas a los colores de lo efímero.
Undefined es un proyecto que nace fuera de lo conceptual y se enfoca especialmente en la experiencia sonora, cosa que queda clara una vez se escucha toda la composición, ya que se siente predominante un estado permanente que pese a variar levemente, crea una progresión magnífica donde delgadas frecuencias, suaves texturas y fascinantes armonías permiten una experiencia meditativa, introspectiva y muy apta para la tranquilidad, la elevación o la simple contemplación del cosmos en su sonora elegancia.
—azterisco.com
