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AMAZING SOUNDS No.121 / November 30, 2002
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AFTER THE TRILOGY : "SINE" , "PULSE" AND "RANDOM", JOSEPH LOIBANT
RELEASES "NUCLEUS" WITH AN APPROACH FULL OF COMPLEX SOUNDS, DENSE
AND WARM, WHICH GIVE HIS COMPOSITIONS AN AVANTGARDE AIR AND HAS US
PLEASANTLY SURPRISED IN EACH OF ITS TRACKS.
AVAILABLE IN THE VIRTUAL SHOP OF AMAZING SOUNDS:

http://www.amazings.com/mailorder.html

====================

CONTENTS:

MACROMASSA, EUROPEAN FACTORY OF PSYCHEDELIC INNOVATION. The music
by Macromassa has an unusual personality, very imaginative,
capable of attracting the attention of the listener at the first
chance. In the current panorama of the alternative musics, there
are bands and artists who have something new to say, whereas
others don't. Macromassa no doubt belongs to the first sector.

REVIEWS:
JOSEPH LOIBANT: "ROTOR [C]" At-Mooss Records
PSICODREAMICS: "THE GARDEN"
ABIRD: "SKYLINE 001" Vaso Music
CYBER ZEN SOUND ENGINE / MATT BORGHI: "THE INTERCEPTED
TRANSMISSIONS" N-Light-N Records
CRAIG PADILLA: "VOSTOK" Spotted Peccary Music
RICHARD BONE: "DISORIENT" Quirkworks Laboratory Discs
OOPHOI: "ATHLIT" Hypnos

====================

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MACROMASSA, EUROPEAN FACTORY OF PSYCHEDELIC INNOVATION

The music by Macromassa has an unusual personality, very
imaginative, capable of attracting the attention of the listener
at the first chance. In the current panorama of the alternative
musics, there are bands and artists who have something new to say,
whereas others don't. Macromassa no doubt belongs to the first
sector.

The band Macromassa was founded in 1976 by Victor Nubla and Juan
Crek. Musicians Albert Gimenez, Anton Ignorant, Zush, Markus A.
Breuss, Pere Boada, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Eric Blanchard, Patri
Martinez, Pep Figueras et al. have collaborated with them in
different stages in the history of the band. About thirty people
have participated in the band during these years. There have been
moments when the team consisted in four, five, eight or three
musicians, to name but a few figures.

Victor Nubla is a composer, videoartist and writer. He has
likewise composed movie soundtracks. Born in 1956, he started his
artistic career in the mid seventies. He has worked in many other
bands and projects: Colectivo de Improvisación Libre, Naif, El
Cuarteto Albano, Nubla & Zulián, Agrupación Instrumental Phonos,
El Consuelo Húngaro, Delirio de Dioses, Secreto Metro, UMYU, UMBN,
Klamm, Clónicos, Zush-Tres, Bel Canto Orquestra, Leo Mariño &
Victor Nubla, and CKT3, among others.

Juan Crek began his activity as a professional musician in the mid
seventies, with a stylistic basis near to psychedelic rock. He has
explored numerous areas in the new musical frontiers. He also has
an interesting solo career. He has collaborated with different
artists, among them Pep Figueras, Sergio Oca, Gustavo Puber del
Burgo, Sophie Borthwick, and Carter Piler.

Looking deeper into how Nubla and Crek developed their musical
vocations and decided to unite their efforts in the common project
of Macromassa, Nubla offers us this explanation:

"I became interested in music through music albums, at age
thirteen. Yet this took place in several stages: One is when I
heard "XXI Century Schizoid Man". Then, when I heard "Lands of
Perfection" by Maquina, I became a fan of theirs following them in
their concerts. By then, I formed a duo with a childhood friend.
We played on Sunday afternoons in his home with the following
instruments: A toy harmonium, mouth harp, and mouth organ.
Thinking about it now, I realise we did all that because I had
been given a cassette recorder/player as a present. We recorded
our experiments. I often did this between ages thirteen and
eighteen, with homemade instruments. One of my friends was Juan
Crek, who used a metal heater as drums. I made experiments with
two tape recorders, a short wave radio and small instruments plus
vocals, in those times. I recorded tapes, I made the covers and
wrote fantastic or surrealist texts that came to accompany the
sounds I recorded. Some time later, Crek and me entered some
environments where Rock was played. We founded a band, "Lamerxis",
with friends who played in "Fuego", a legendary band in our
neighbourhood. We even came to give some live concerts, playing
some of our own things, together with some by Hendrix, Stones...
Therefore, these are more or less the starting points for my
laboratory works as well as my works with a band. There it was
where, what you call my vocation, was already decided. There is a
series of stepping stones, a series of launching events, of this
vocation. They are places and moments you go by at the right
moment. They could be called chances, yet I prefer to call them
minimal readjustements from fate."

"I was self-taught until age twenty-four, when for a year I
studied the clarinet and musical notation a little bit. Specially,
for the clarinet it was obvious indeed that I had been playing on
my own for too long, and I had acquired what is called digitation
vices and all that. So I stopped studying and continued playing
the clarinet. Crek and I went on to a more advanced phase in our
musical activities, where I was singer and keyboardist, and Crek
drums and percussion. In 1976, given the founding of Macromassa, I
bought my first wind instrument: A saxophone. I was very impressed
by David Jackson, Andy MacKay or Ian Underwood, and the use of
wind instruments modified with pedals. The result was impressive
indeed. With this sax connected to a synthesizer module that
Rafael Duyos had customized for me, I recorded "Darlia
Microtónica", the first album by Macromassa. Crek had been in
charge of the audio generator (as well as Duy). In the following
years, I turned to other types of clarinet. The Duy synth was
substituted by modern compact pedals. Also my first Korg MS20 came
to be used together with a sampler. Crek's evolution took him from
the audio generator to the "pedalled" baritone saxo."

In the beginning, the reaction of the people before the music
played by Macromassa was not very comforting...

"September 1976, Magic hall (Barcelona): 300 people at the
beginning of the concert. 2 at its end. This was our first concert
already as Macromassa. Then, the reactions were very varied.
Whereas in 1980 we already had fans, although very few, at the
festival of Aja-Cerdanya together with Secreto Metro, we were
thrown true stones from the border (I never came to find out
whether they were from the French or the Spanish side). Anyhow,
always, from the beginning, there have been loyal friends who have
supported us in many ways, and who helped both to finance our
first albums and to lend us their premises or their instruments to
be able to rehearse. Friends, basically, within the music world,
and specially within the "alternative" circles. Only now we have
friends from no matter which environment and they do not treat us
as if we were mad. Or maybe yes, but from the perspective of their
own madness, which is very comforting. Another constant support
has been that of the specialized press. They have always helped us
to breathe a little."

Albert Giménez, who also was one of the first members of
Macromassa, came to music through a similar path to that of
Nubla's and Crek's:


"I began to get interested in music at age fourteen, more or less,
when I discovered Jimi Hendrix. His music impressed me a lot. Then
I knew what I wanted to do, which was to play the guitar in an
experimental, innovative way. My beginnings as a guitarist were
the typical ones: playing in street bands and school bands during
my teenage days. My activity became more professional when I met
Jordi García, and later Michel Huygen, and we founded Suck
Electronic, a band that at the beginning was called Yeti, until we
changed the name after our first concert. Our music was between
the electronic and the psychedelic. In those times (the mid '70s)
I was very interested in German electronic music, like for
instance Tangerine Dream's and Klaus Schulze's, and I tried to
work more or less within this trend. After a while, I left the
band. Then I met, through Michel Huygen, the musicians of the band
Macromassa, and became a member."

Certainly, the beginnings of Macromassa were rather difficult.
Giménez remembers some of the incidents:

"I recorded "Darlia Microtónica" with them, live, at the Magic
hall; and on the third day the police came and there was a
frightful fight; the music was very radical, provoking, and
experimental".

"I continued to give concerts in Macromassa. I specially remember
a very amusing one at a cultural center. Each one of us would
bring a tape with things he had recorded without the others
knowing what it was. For instance, I brought recordings from a
television set, records played backwards, and other similar
material. Our performance consisted in playing all our tapes
together as, at the same time, we played our instruments. The
audience, mostly consisting of people over sixty years of age, had
come to listen to us without knowing what we used to do, and
became astounded at what we played. Even so, there were those who
were within our wavelength, and one even came to say: "This is
better than Pink Floyd!".

Michel Huygen himself, who some time late was to found Neuronium,
also was a member of Macromassa during a brief period of time.
Victor Nubla tells us about this in further detail:

"Michel Huygen, although almost no one may know this, was the
first person who played in Macromassa, apart from Crek and myself.
As Crek and me were preparing the presentation of Macromassa, in
1976, before we ever had played live, at a place where we
rehearsed, Michel brought his keyboards and we stayed together for
about a week. After this time, as we saw we did not get along well
in the least, we departed one another and continued to be friends,
and later Albert Giménez, who had left Suck Electronic, came to
our band and stayed for almost a year. He even recorded the first
single of "Darlia Microtónica" live with us. And later, Michel and
Albert formed Neuronium soon after. Therefore, the evolution pre-
Neuronium of Michel Huygen and Albert Giménez also passed through
Macromassa. After the creation of Neuronium, we kept in some
contact during the release of our first albums. When Albert left
Neuronium, it was less so, as the one we had come to deal with
more often was him, whereas with Michel there was less contact."

In 1976, Macromassa began to concentrate in their studio an
important amount of electronic equipment, which was a clear
evidence of the innovative path that Nubla's and Crek's project
was to take. Many of the instruments were customized by Rafael
Duyos, the Spanish pioneer in the making of synthesizers. They
even had a legendary Ondes Martenot that they succeeded in
rescuing and restoring. With respect to all this, Nubla states:
"Always the will of Macromassa, and as an extension my own, has
been that of relying on our own, very particular technical
infrastructure, very adapted to what we need, and therefore that
has always been one of the basic interests in our work. About
whether it has been difficult to gather the equipment, well yes,
and even more so taking into account the fact that the entire
first laboratory, not only mine but also that of Macromassa, was
stolen in 1980. So whatever we have now has been purchased from
that year on."

Besides synthesizers, electric guitars, computers and other
frequent instruments in a psychedelic or electronic band, the
members of Macromassa work or have worked with unusual
instruments, and even with diverse objects such as dry flowers
from which they have extracted their peculiar sound when moved
before a microphone.

A very important aspect of Nubla's and Creck's has been that of
pioneering independent music publishers, who impulsed the
avantgarde musical scene in the 1970s and the 1980s in Spain.

"I have always liked to remark the fact that the label UMYU was
eventually born as we needed to release our fist album, "Darlia
Microtónica". The record industry would have never released that
album, not even if it had been signed by Miles Davis. Those who
know "Darlia Microtónica", know that that music in 1976 was like
putting your fingers into a plug. Yet we wanted it released, and
UMYU was the label we invented. Thanks to the fact that we had
this album and the help from some people in particular, we came to
be in contact with the "progressive" and the "alternative" record
channels all over the world, and we could distribute in the United
States, Europe and Japan".

The next album was similarly produced and later Macromassa
contacted other Spanish bands that wanted to self-release their
own albums (namely, Wellcome To Amoriños and Perucho's). Nubla
explains us the result of such contacts: "We lent them our label
and helped them a little with distribution, although financially
speaking it was a failure. Later we were encouraged to produce
other albums like the single of Lol Coxhill or the Domestic
Sampler Umyu, the true starting point for all the avantgarde music
of the eighties in Barcelona. In all that activity, many contacts
with other bands produced new labels where I only collaborated,
let's say, in the initial spirit, or producing some part of some
project, or also musically. Those labels were Filobús, Doméstic,
Klamm Records... That is the pre-history of what later was called
"independent labels". As in UMYU I had already come to be broke
several times, I decided to continue getting broke with a new
label, and created with Antón Ignorant and Peque Lino the
Laboratorio de Música Desconocida (L.M.D., "Unknown Music
Laboratory") with which we released cassettes by Secreto Metro and
mine. Ignorant created his own, excellent label (Grand Mal
Edicions), and I shaped a legal frame to L.M.D., together with
Crek, which opened the stage of tape releases by Comelade,
Macromassa, Bene Gesserit and various compilations. After the
bankruptcy of Rigor, and having for the first time a contract for
a label for Macromassa (Discos Esplendor Geométrico) we decided to
keep L.M.D. going as a many-sided producer (tapes, video,
concerts, radio) and re-release only the materiar directly
concerning us: Macromassa ("El regreso a las botellas de Papá
Nódulus"), Juan Crek ("Meggustaggruñirrr!") and Victor Nubla
("Piedra Nombre"). And I was busy with that, when three small tape
labels in Barcelona decided to join: Las Cintas del Fín,
Duplicadora and Grand Mal, and they invited L.M.D. to participate
in the engaging of a mail distributor. Thus Cuatro Sellos was
born, a label that besides giving way to our own catalogues,
developed interesting projects such as the release of Don King,
concerts by Bourbonese Qualk, Esplendor Geométrico, Don King,
auditions, collaborations with the magazine Fenici, exhibitions of
mail-art, etc. Cuatro Sellos was dissolved when it had
accomplished its aims and its members began new personal stories,
and L.M.D. stopped its own releases, limiting itself to maintain
in the catalogue what I have already mentioned."

One of the latest adventures of Macromassa, and particularly of
Victor Nubla, has been that of becoming the main supporter of the
organization Gracia Territori Sonor. The district of Gracia, in
the city of Barcelona, has traditionally been a confluence point
of artists, and most specially of musicians. The nocturnal
atmosphere of this area, between bohemian and noisy, has been
compared to that of Paris or New York, also with regard to its
avantgarde traits. A series of musicians, supported by
videoartists, graphic designers, writers and other creative minds
from different fields, joined in 1996 to create a collective
having a sufficient capacity of organization to turn this district
into a hot point for the alternative musics. This initiative is
certainly unusual and attractive, since it is aimed at keeping the
district with a personality clearly identified with experimental
music, in the same way as other urban zones all over the world
have a reputation (whether it is deserved or not) as points of a
great activity in other areas, (as for instance Wall Street in the
field of finance). The activities were initiated with the release
of a CD sampler including pieces by experimental musicians
residing in Gracia. One of the most important activities was the
organization of the II European Forum of Experimental Music, which
was held in Barcelona in 1997. Among other activities to be
mentioned of the collective Gracia Territori Sonor, there is the
creation in this area of a web of concert sites, constituted by
bars, concert halls, theatres, art galleries and other facilities
devoted to leisure or culture. The idea has prospered, and there
already is a great deal of "improvised auditoriums" in the area,
where numerous avantgarde artists perform on a regular basis, not
only native ones, but also from other parts of the world.
Different organizations and institutions have collaborated in the
development of this project: The European Union, the Instituto de
Cultura del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona (Institute of Culture of the
Barcelona Town Hall), the Consorcio Catalán de Promoción Exterior
de la Cultura, the Observatori Interarts, the Centre Artesa
Tradicionarius (Tracidionarius Artisan Center), S.O.R.O.L.L.,
Associació de Músics de Jazz de Catalunya (Catalonian Association
of Jazz Musicians), Arco y Flecha, La Línea, Cines Verdi,
Sonostudi, La Ñola, Café del Sol, Mi Bar, Galpón Sur, Galería
Metropolitana de Barcelona, Heliogabal, G3G, Liquid Records, La
Taberna del Pirata, and the collective of artists Civilización, to
name some of them.

Essential works (albums & videos):
DARLIA MICROTONICA
EL CONCIERTO PARA IR EN GLOBO
CIERTAMENTE CUANDO Y PORQUE
EL REGRESO A LAS BOTELLAS DE PAPA NODULUS
GARRAPATON
AL VER TOLOSA
MACROMISSA
ESPEJO RAPIDISIMO QINQEN
GELATERIA LOS PODERES DEL CHICHONER
SEGURAMENTE 04
MACRO TE VE
VIDEO RAPIDISIMO QINQEN
VIEJO LEON (RATTED X)
YO NO SOY EL ORNITOLOGO
BANDA MUNICIPAL DE TOLOSA INTERPRETA MACROMASSA
LOS HECHOS PEREZ
MACROMASSA 7 ZOG LIVE
UM-YU
PUERTA HELIOGABAL

(Jorge Munnshe)

====================

REVIEWS:

JOSEPH LOIBANT:
"ROTOR [C]"
At-Mooss Records
In this double CD, composer Joseph Loibant shows us his more
experimental aspect. Using the whole potential of laboratory
work, this electronic musician constructs eminently unusual sound
structures. One of the main starting points is the recording of a
night concert in the open air, which he gave on the occasion of a
shooting star shower. Yet this recording does not by any means the
final result present in the album. It merely is the skeleton on
which an entire universe of extrahuman sensations is being built.
Layer by layer, this original structure ends up being hidden under
an unexpected electronic ecosystem, whose fauna has been created
by Loibant by means of an acute imagination for the architectures
of sound plus an intense quest in research and experimentation. As
if it were a history by H.P. Lovecraft trasplanted to an
industrial stage and containing cybernetic monsters instead of
organic ones, the different pieces appear to evoke ghostly scenes
of mystery where everything turns around the icy essence of this
Other Ecosystem, the one which has not been fruit of biologic
evolution, but of technology. Insidious melodies, winking rhytms,
and an impressive mise-en-scene, are perfectly defined on the
cover of the album, also created by Loibant, where steely tones
dominate, and where an absolute protagonism is given to the
Mechanic Element, to the Artificial Piece, to the Industrial
Component, in the same way as a Cell on a luminous background
could represent the concept of Biological Life. Among other
peculiarities of the album, mention must be made of its complex
Stereo panorama, with very marked contrasts, which makes it
advisable not to listen to it with headphones, but rather through
loudspeakers, which is the audio mode Loiband towards which
Loibant has focused the peculiar sonority of his work.
JORGE MUNNSHE

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazings.com/mailorder.html

JOSEPH LOIBANT
Synthesist Joseph Loibant is the founder of the band At-Mooss. He
possess a wide musical trajectory, which includes his activity as
a member of the techno band Programa, together with Carlos Guirao
(ex-member of Neuronium) and Jose M. Ciria. As for his personal
style, Loibant is the most eclectic member of At-Mooss. This is so
due to the many trends he has dealt with during his long career as
a musician, ranging from Jazz to Techno. He is a skilled sound
engineer / designer.
Essential recordings:
-SINE
-PULSE
-RANDOM
-NUCLEUS
-REGRESSION ALPHA
-FIRE COMET
-ROTOR [C]
In At-Mooss:
MORPHING SYNTHESIZERS
MORPHING SYNTHESIZERS-II
MORPHING SYNTHESIZERS-III
CYCLOTRON
In Programa:
SINTESIS DIGITAL
ACROPOLIS
IMPACTO
ASHES

You can find more information here:

http://www.at-mooss.com

If you wish to purchase any recordings by this artist you only
have to use this link:

http://www.amazings.com/mailorder.html

PSICODREAMICS:
"THE GARDEN"

In the pieces that are included in this album, the artist gathers
traits from New Instrumental Music, atmospheric Pop and Techno.
Also there are passages or themes that get near to Classical
music, and others near to Space Music. Although several of the
pieces have rather fast rhythms, others are more relaxed in
nature. The music turns out to be dreamy, oniric, at times soft,
at times lively, with some melancholy touches, with warm textures
and crepuscular colors, always bringing to the mind of the
listener the vision of magic universes. A general trait of the
album is the fact that the music happens to be very intense,
vital, as if reflecting strong emotions.
PASCUAL JURADO

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazings.com/mailorder.html

ABIRD:
"SKYLINE 001"
Vaso Music
By using unusual architectures, the artist creates dense pieces,
brimming with colors and shades. He utilizes electronics with a
great imagination and skill, breaking with quite moulds and
exploring new musical continents. The album results into a varied
narrative tapestry, at times hypnotic, calm, while at other times
becoming alive, really lively, in some occassions with darkish,
somewhat nightmarish brush-strokes. This album, in short, shows an
artist in constant progression, whose music possesses an unusual
personality, capable of attracting the attention of the listener
at once.
PASCUAL JURADO

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazings.com/mailorder.html

CYBER ZEN SOUND ENGINE / MATT BORGHI:
"THE INTERCEPTED TRANSMISSIONS"
N-Light-N Records
This is an album that could be labelled within the genre of Space
Music with Ambient touches, ethereal melodies, at times
disquieting, and whose special sound effects may remind us of a
space voyage to unknown regions of a strange universe, be it a
real or an imaginary one.
EDGAR KOGLER

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005RJB8/thesciencebookbo

CRAIG PADILLA:
"VOSTOK"
Spotted Peccary Music
In this album, Craig Padilla has sculpted music inspired by the
mysterious depths of the lake Vostok, hidden beneath Antarctica.
The music flows, evolving, never losing its intrinsic beauty,
deep, hypnotic, with electronic undercurrents that lead to
atmospheres full of a soft energy, at times with dark brushes.
EDGAR KOGLER

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000062Y9B/thesciencebookbo

RICHARD BONE:
"DISORIENT"
Quirkworks Laboratory Discs
In this album, the artist presents a wide range of sounds from all
over the world, where pop traits are intertwined with World Music
melodies in a very successful way. They are pieces of a complex
conception, yet at the same time they are easy to listen to. There
are themes which could be defined as a fusion of New Instrumental
Music and Jazz, with elements typical of Ambient A certain
nostalgic air is present in some melodic passages.
MARCELLA CIRIGNOLA

If you wish to purchase any recordings by this artist you only
have to use this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/79471/thesciencebook\
bo

OOPHOI:
"ATHLIT"
Hypnos
Dark atmospheres, crepuscular metallic textures and disquieting
whispers compose a landscape of eerie colors. Much of the music is
icy, ghostly, static. The synthesizers shape a dense tapestry that
immerse the listener within a magical world where time ceases to
exist.
EDGAR KOGLER

====================

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