‘Two Chilean Blokes in the Soundhouse’ is Alejandro Albornoz and Mika Martini getting dark and dirty with sound in Studio 2, University of Sheffield Sound StudiosMay 2016, Sheffield, UK. With analogue synthesizers, contact microphones and digital processes rendered live, rough sound objects are hewn from all manner of sources leading to short tracks that challenge and delight at the same time.

Alejandro and Mika go way back so their improvisations are extremely respectful. Track durations vary according to materials and techniques used. Sometimes the analogue electronics are dominant; sometimes recordings of live instruments such as pianos play a major role with electronic sounds clothing the real in soft noise and bristling modulations. There’s a real sense of ‘performance’ which is sometimes hard to hear in improvised electronic music. This sensibility jostles nicely with the ‘hands on’ approach to their kit and sounds, and makes me return to various tracks for ‘another listen’.

Concluding the improvised music are two ‘reconstructions’ – an out of real-time re-consideration of their recorded improvisations. Immediately one hears an alternate approach to time. Real Time is no longer important; the ‘moment’ doesn’t matter; sounds are ordered, re-ordered, edited, and ordered again. The final two tracks are like paintings: sounds once free to roam are rounded up, fed, watered, (caged maybe) but framed to form a journey that neatly concludes an exciting collaboration and an excellent disc.

Adrian Moore
Director University of Sheffield Sound Studios.
(Sheffield, UK. Septiembre 2017 / September, 2017)