CNV21
release date: 17.Sep.2005

ANLA COURTIS, PABLO RECHE - Transistores de Aire ep

Archive.org // April 1, 2006

For me "Transistores de aire" EP is the quintessence of icy, gray, minimal isolationist drone. Images of being completely alone in a stark, unwelcoming landscape flash across my mind. Fluctuating waves of low rumbling noise coupled with sad, transparent tones, and menacing slices of feedback create a cold, heavy atmosphere as occasional shreds of elecronic scrapes act like a bitter wind stinging my face. One listen to this 18+ minute oppressive drone and you'll know why it's so brief - one could not last this long under these conditions.

[ Larry Johnson ]

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Vital Weekly 496

In the years to come, new markets for electronic music will become bigger and bigger. Of course China will be booming, but also South America is upcoming. Anla Courtis of Reynols is for instance already a household name to some. Here he teams up with Pablo Reche, a fellow Argentinean drone musician. In the summer of 2005 they recorded 'Transistores De Aire' together - an eighteen and half minute pure drone piece. Shimmering at the very low end of the sound spectrum, just deep tones are covered here in this territory. How this was done, we don't know. Perhaps some old analogue synth? Maybe the aircondition system being amplified? There is hardly a movement in this piece, no big moving passages, just this very slow, humming sound that is recorded at a low volume. One waits for the big burst, that will destroy everything, but no such is happening. A very intense piece when played loud, and a very atmospheric piece when played soft - a frightening piece when played in the dark.

[ Frans de Waard]

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Between Sounds blogspot . september 2005

I'm tempted to write a blurb like "Now, that's what I call minimal drone music!", but that would wholly miss the point. Yes, this new release of CON-V by two Argentinean experimental artists is quite minimal (in the sense that you hear only a few sounds here) and nothing else than drone: long, low-pitched drones (presumably coming from a guitar) with occasional shifts in the pitch, moves in the stereo field, and some tiny quiet noises added here and there; there are also a few moments of overdrive, but I'm not quite sure whether they're in the music or caused by my headphones. Notwithstanding, calling it minimal drone would mask the main peculiarity of this 19 minutes piece of music.
Most music want something from the listener; they want you to have certain feelings at certain points, they have their tricks to grab and guide your attention, they flatter of frighten (and then most of the time soothe) you. This is true not only about pop music, though it is most visible there. (Laibach built the second half of their career on this assumption.)
There are only a few examples of music that does not want anything from the listener, and this EP is one of them. It is like the realisation of the dream of some avantgarde movements: to create a piece of art that exists on its own, not being the duplicate of anything in the "outside world" (nor the "inside world" of the psyche).
transistores de aire .ep doesn't contain any ornaments (or condiments, as the website's release note puts it); it doesn't have the usual structural points that tells you how to react to the music (intro, gradation, climax and the likes). It certainly has a structure, but it is a structure of a being totally independent of the listener, unaware of him or her. It also breathes and moves somewhere, but you don't know its aim - it is only known to this creature.
Calling it cold would implicate some intentional relation to the listener; but this music doesn't care whether you like it or not. Though I must tell I really like it.

[ r.a. ]

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