Didem Coskunseven & Paral·lel - A Handful Of Sand

Move Of Ten

"Black Truffle is pleased to announce Tender Membranes, the label’s first release from Swedish-Finnish sound artist and electro-acoustic composer Marja Ahti. Active for a decade in the Finnish underground music scene, in recent years Ahti has developed a distinctive approach to patiently unfolding electro-acoustic constructions, documented on a string of solo releases and collaborative projects with Judith Hamann and her husband Niko-Matti Ahti. Working with concrete and instrumental sounds, field recordings, and electronics, Ahti favours neither disjunctive collage nor monolithic consistency; rather, her work is composed of organically unfolding sequences of details and textures, which, as she says, ‘can stretch out or cut fast as long as they have a sense of inner stillness’, a sense that she connects to moments of heightened attention in everyday life.

Tender Membranes consists of four lengthy pieces, partly inspired by the image of the senses and mind as membranes allowing for the passage between inner and outer spaces, sensation and its causes, creating a world. Ahti’s unhurried pacing encourages this sense of listening as an opening or surrender to sound, which can often create the impression that the listener is moving through a space zooming in on details. The opening Shrine (Aether) exemplifies this aspect of Ahti’s approach: a bell clears the air with a single long tone, followed by the ambience of outdoor spaces, crackling electronics, an archival recording of a horsefly on a windowpane. Dozens of these moments, varying in length, density, and intensity, move past the listener’s attention, momentarily brought into focus then slipping away. Like those of the masters of the French musique concrète tradition, Ahti’s sounds are not often recognisable, though they might suggest proximity or distance, open environments or closed spaces, the urban or rural, day or night. In Ahti’s work, we do not encounter spectacular metamorphoses à la Parmegiani but rather a state of ambiguity where the listener is often unsure what is organic and what is inorganic, where the careful productions of the synthesizer might end and sounds discovered in the environment begin.

What Ahti calls her ‘poetic way of experiencing and organising the familiar and the unfamiliar’ is sustained throughout Tender Membranes, but each piece has its own character. On Dust / Light, human presence is more overt, as what appear to be whispers, singing, and distant speech thread between high frequencies, untraceable drips and pops, and metallic shimmers. In all this there is a melody that you can sing and to which you may dance makes more prominent use of musical instruments, gaining a sombre beauty from half-buried piano chords and organ tones. On the closing Oh Fragrant Witness, a delicate cloud of subtly bending pitches is repeatedly disrupted by a resounding, almost ominous mass of low tones, at once a strange detour from much of what has gone before and an almost classical finale. Arriving in a sleeve reproducing contemporary Finnish photographer Sini Pelkki’s fragmented visions of the everyday, Tender Membranes is a balm to reawaken tired ears."

Released September 29, 2023

Tender Membranes

Shrine (Aether)

Cold Reading

Nea Selini

In the early days of Mego prior to it’s transformation into Editions Mego a most unexpected release appeared amongst the radical roster. Out of all the twisted hard drive activity from PITA, General Magic, Farmers Manual etc appeared a very different kind of release. One made from a computer, but one with a softer atmosphere, cloud-like in sonic shape and even containing discernible melodies (!). This was the debut release from Japanese artist Tujiko Noriko which not only launched her career to a larger audience but opened the doors of Editions Mego to a broader range of experimental musical forms.

Noriko’s particular synthesis of electronic abstraction, melody, voice and atmosphere has few peers as sound gently circles her mystical words morphing into a succession of emotive aural experiments framed as songs.

Noriko’s evolution since her debut Mego release has seen further solo works alongside collaborations as well as a shift into cinema, both acting and as director. 

On »Crépuscule« one can hear the influence the film medium has had on her music as visual insignia are invoked in the evocative audio at hand. Instrumental interludes further conjure a film landscape alongside the titles which also reiterate the cinematic form. 

This is synthetic music with a deep human presence. The mind of a human captured wandering the fantastic realms of the internal sphere is exquisitely rendered through machines which usually prompt one to disfigure such humanistic tendencies. The warmth, serenity and dream-like environment that Noriko conjures from her tools is what makes her such a unique and outstanding artist and »Crépuscule« is an epic testament to these powers.

The title »Crépuscule« perfectly encapsulates the somnambulant nature of the music where the nocturnal shifts evoke a broad sense of calm. »Crépuscule I« features a selection of shorter ‘songs’ whilst »Crépuscule II« allows more room for these songs / moods to breathe with only three songs running at broader longer duration. »Crépuscule« allows the listener to view the world through Noriko’s eyes. With her cunning ability to humanise machines a world of calm wonder is allowed to take focus in the frame.

Available as 2CD, digital and double-cassette. The later format by request of Noriko as it was this format she flung her debut mego demo onto Peter in Tokyo many moons ago.

Crépuscule I & II

Fossil Words

Tujiko Noriko 'Fossil Words' (EMEGO307)

Manja Ristić/Joana Guerra/Verónica Cerrotta, Slani pejzaži

Borborygme, sound installation, (10'20), 2022. 
Materials: white stoneware, fabric and sound system. Sound installation created in collaboration with Raphael Tiberghien, presented at the Nuit Blanche in Évry-Courcouronnes, (91) Fr.

Sound creation (10'20) based on analog synthesizers, variations and rhythmic microphones. The idea was to play with and compose around the resonance of ceramic forms
to reveal a labyrinthine, infra-world sound journey.

Sound : Méryll Ampe
Sculpture : Raphaël Tiberghien
Photography : Mathilde Geldhof

Extract "Borborygme" Sound Installation (2022), collaboration with Raphael Tiberghien

Fun Flowers

he was tricked
she was lured
and another bird lost her wings

Lassen and White Oak

Triamb Music presents: Natural 002

AMBIENTES KOLLEKTIV: Interconnectedness PARTS

Triamb Music's 'Natural' series continues with Natural 002, a refined exploration of Ambientes Kollektiv's original live improvisation, 'Interconnectedness.' This release divides the 51-minute performance into ten distinct 'PARTS,' each a unique sonic journey recorded live at the 'Natural' Immersive Experience in Astral Junction Berlin on November 12th, 2024.

Embark on a voyage through the ephemeral embrace of 'Ephemeral Symbiosis' and the profound introspection of 'Reflection in the Ether.' Saumet, Ø, and Michele Scaccaglia, masters of sonic alchemy, weave electronic soundscapes with the organic essence of being. Each 'PART' is a unique, unrepeatable revelation, a glimpse into the interconnectedness of the universe, captured in a fleeting moment of live improvisation.

Mastered by Gasquk at Astral Junction Blautraum Studio.

For more information about the artist and the venue, visit:

AMBIENTES KOLLEKTIV: www.instagram.com/ambienteskollektiv
Astral Junction: www.instagram.com/astraljunction/

Manja Ristić/Joana Guerra/Verónica Cerrotta, Slani pejzaži

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