D i s c o g r a p h y
[ go back ]
| Habitat | format: CDr - released: 2004 | label: And-Oar
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
A release with only acoustic material. It is my personal version of the term 'Nachtluft' (Night air) which I have always found very fascinating.'
And-oar has had this in its catalogue for a while but it seems to be sold out there. You can buy it here at 10 euro's all incl. |
||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
| REVIEWS: It's been a while since Jos Smolders has releasesd a CD, but when he does it is spot on. This release from and/OAR fits the label perfectly well. All tracks are based on field recordings done in the past years. Smolders has not been known to work much with field recordings as such, let alone exclusively, so this is somewhat of a debut. Then again, after putting the disc in and hearing muffled sounds from the street it doesn't take long for electronics to almost take over completely. I presume these electronic sounds are all based on the original recordings. The disc features 8 tracks, three of which seem to function as intermezzo's (between tracks 1 & 3, 3 & 5, 5 & 7) and the last one as a sort of finale (it's called coda). But since there are no real breaks between the tracks, it's not something that is directly heard. Okay, so much for the layout, now to the content. This CD is surprisingly full and rich in colours, textures and dynamics. All tracks are constructed very car efully and display Smolders' abilities to the maximum without a doubt. I have rarely heard such extreme make over of acoustic sound without it's identity getting lost in that process. Smolders works around this problem all the time, juxtaposing the different material in such a way that one always somehow knows that these are essentially acoustic sounds. And that is very well done. Compositions are very well done as well, always ensuring a certian tension that keeps the listener activated. My conclusion is simple: this as a great CD! Jos Smolders still rules Roel Meelkop A sideline symphony for the street. Sounds like cars whizzing by in the rain, lots of contemplation, space, space, space. Jos Smolders, a graduate of the collective known as THU20 (back to the mid 80s), reveals a softer, deeper side of his senses on Habitat, an acoustic outing. Become a passive outside listener to indoor goings-on, draw wisdom from the wind, and bear in mind that when Smolders is ready, he will take a most industrial turn, with a metallic varietal that he’s aged to perfection. A majority of the beginnings here, “Nacht 3:30AM” and “Zondag” just float gently. This is “lose yourself, headphone listening.” These vague field recordings of birds in the distance and car doors and engines are spliced and repeated giving the impression of a childhood history of open space and its man-made interruptions to the balance of nature. It’s damn subtle (until “Beton”). The assorted percussive noise actually sounds like a writhing, heavy-breathing organism. It’s more intricate and awkwardly self-aware than caustic noise for the sake of it. More like the choreography of electric friction, especially heard on “Arvika” which is a motorized spring-like doorstop that just rips and purrs and moves so organically. The track also boasts the howling of what could be boys in an old, cavernous school hallway. This is a complex listen and may take several sittings to pick up the delicate minutiae between the static and metallics. tj norris / igloo magazine The acoustic ecology of Jos Smolders manages to refresh the listener's brain through a sapient dosage of silence and events in a sort of sonic chemoterapy delivering us from residual particles of predictable manifestations. These sounds are best enjoyed in a silent environment, with just a modicum of external activity coming to enhance them, in order to be able to define their position not only in the surrounding space but also in that precise moment of your existence; street noises get filtered by effects, becoming an ever changing solution of fluorescent colours and concrete digital grains, the whole in a continuous struggle against predetermined shapes. Morphing voices of animals and humans are refracted in a thousand directions, yet they always remain within earshot, blending and fusing in shifting dynamic relationships with semi-organic external activities, thus reinforcing these soundscapes' evocative appeal. Everything sounds perfect in this veritable documentary; Smolders confirms his silent, steady growth as an assembler of suggestions. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes) |
|||||||||||||||||