Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin | Angélica Castelló
(Fourteen reflections on the end)
Gruen 193 | Vinyl (+ Digital) | Digital > [order]
Reviews
Lorena Moreno Vera, 2023
Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin (Fourteen Reflections On The End) originated from an installation exhibited at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2019. Fourteen magnetic bodies of tape that dialogued with the fourteen pieces of electroacoustic music now contained in this album composed from the sound anthology of Angélica Castelló. Thus, Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin is a complex piece consisting of multiple parts that, although articulated with each other, hold a life of their own.
Like every body, these have a unique history made up of mixed fragments spun by Angélica, ranging from field recordings, references, and self-references to previous pieces, experiences, and voice recordings made specifically for these compositions re-recorded in various formats, from lo to high fidelity, analog and digital, composed, decomposed and recomposed (Castelló, A., 2019). Likewise, as any body, they also reflect on their end, whether absolute or temporal, of the many ways of being finite and of saying goodbye.
During the Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin, Castelló takes you on a journey that is difficult to locate. An ethereal space between shattered glass, stridulation of cicadas, war drums, murmurs in French, Italian maledictions, and soft recitations in Spanish. From uproar to solace, all wrapped in a soft abstraction that only allows access to the subtle whisper of these expressions. A gesture between invitation and sharing because who does not recognize oneself in this emotional storm?
First, the approach of the winds, the first breeze that caresses the body. Then the bewilderment announced by the scent of uncertainty condensed in the air’s humidity. The prelude to the storm, to something that will shake you from head to toe, something from which there will be no return.
To the acceleration of the winds comes the percussions, the tremor of the storm with its lightning. la Ira (1). A vibration running through the whole body, unstoppable. This reverberating sound, resulting from its re-percussion with our body acoustics, owes its tones and echoes to the cavities and organs of different masses. From what is hollow and what is full; what is void and what is matter. There is no turning back. It is a dive into the void; to fight and resist because there is no other way to go. It is a matter of survival.
Ma fin est mon commencement
Et mon commencement ma fin (2)
After this, the cicada resumes at the crack of dawn, a gentle breeze, and solitude, that temporarily musical silence of embraces (3) with hints of harpsichord and bells.
The breaking of the waves in Sicily is accompanied by the antenna that picks up radio transmissions that already invite other tastes. The Mediterranean and its currents mingle and divide tense routes of escape, exchange, and struggle between Blutorangen, tides, and birdsongs.
An immersion into deep waters.
And in the end, we all commit sins!
Queste maledette! (4)
_______________________
(1) Anger.
(2) Guillaume de Machaut, Ma fin est mon commencement (Rondeau 14), c.1360
“My end is my beginning, and my beginning my end.”
(3) From the original in Spanish “ese temporal,” “el silencio musical de los abrazos.” Temporal can refer to “temporary” and to a “storm.”
(4) These damned ones!
A side
1 Rómpeme 3:47
2 Ira 3:40 | MP3
3 Ma fin 4:00
4 Sicilia 3:16 | MP3
5 Gracias 4:02
6 Muérete 3:08
7 Silver 5:11 | MP3
B side
1 Tombeau 1 4:24
2 Tombeau 2 3:24
3 Bells 3:35
4 Un enfant 3:52
5 Un homme 4:15
6 Llorona 3:23
7 Chanson triste 4:12 | MP3
14 Tracks (54′00″)
Vinyl (300 copies)
Music: Angélica Castelló
Mastering: Martin Siewert
Art work: Monika Gold
Thanks and love to Ana Cortina, Gudinni Cortina, Monika Gold, Roberto Morales, Jérôme Noetinger, Carlos Prieto, Martin Siewert, Burkhard Stangl, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Foro Cultural de Austria de México, SKE & Gruerekorder.
Sound Art Series by Gruenrekorder
Germany / 2023 / Gruen 193 / LC 09488
Aurelio Cianciotta | Neural
These recordings from Mexican composer Angélica Castelló were originally developed in 2019 for an installation at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca and are now released on the Gruenrekorder label. The tracks are relatively short with only one of them lasting more than five minutes. They allude to the end of life and have been developed with the use of field recordings and unconventional sounds from various musical instruments, radio frequencies, quotations and references to other songs. Echoes of multiple languages can also be heard. The sound quality is intentionally non-homogeneous, corresponding to the nature of the recorded materials, not worrying too much about format or resolution. Nor is there any special manipulation of the sound sources, everything seems to be the result of different juxtapositions. A new beginning always provides new energy: each of these meditations might also be meant as the viaticum for a new journey or existence. Angélica Castelló is at ease when she plays an abstract combination of sounds. Her multifaced approach facilitates the creation of relationships between music, performance, visual arts and daily life, adding other sources of inspiration into these areas, such as literature, aesthetics and philosophy, in an elusive union between modernist collage, electroacoustic music, along with contemporary conceptualism. Then even fragility becomes a strength, and what could only once be dreamed of is able to manifest itself, culminating in something that is disturbing and adventurous, meditative and fragmentary, experimental and visionary.
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textura
Both of these recent ‚Sound Art Series‘ releases from Gruenrekorder embody the label’s experimental aesthetic and forward-thinking sensibility, the first from Mexico City-born and Austria-based sound artist Angelica Castelló and the second Bremen-born and Frankfurt-based Hannes Seidl. Whereas Castelló’s fifty-four-minute Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin (Fourteen Reflections on the End) spreads fourteen electroacoustic miniatures across two vinyl sides, Seidl’s Befreit die Maschinen (Liberate the Machines) presents its forty-two-minute ‘Radio drama‘ as a single-track CD, each release available in 300 physical copies.
Castelló’s functions effectively as a standalone recording, but it actually originated out of a 2019 sound art exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico; in the presentation, recordings were coupled with fourteen magnetic tape-woven bodies hanging in space (photos at her site show one such body hanging from a tree limb). Inspiration for the project came from French medieval poet Guillaume de Machaut, and specifically his words, “My end is my beginning and my beginning is my end” (reminiscent of “In my beginning is my end” from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets). Castelló uses the text as a springboard for self-referential ruminations on memory, death, entropy, “the return that is always renewed [and] the beginning, as an inevitable mirror of the end itself.” While all bodies inevitably decay and die, they’re reborn too, albeit in a different form.
The sound artist in this case subjected field and voice recordings, radio and cassette devices, and a paetzold recorder to various manipulations to render the fourteen settings into their presented form. On the A side, glassy drones, bird chirps, and breaking glass noises engage the attention in “Rómpeme,” the activity level high but also portending the intense action to come. The onset of “Ira” brings with it granular transmissions, industrial noise, and a general sense of turbulence. Churning rhythms suggest the presence of machinery relentlessly burrowing into the ground. Peacefulness sets in thereafter, with high-pitched tones whistling alongside soft voice utterances. Blustery breezes, voice babble, and breaking waves merge thereafter into a disorienting stream as the programme perpetuates its alternation between soothing and aggressive episodes. Squeaks and squeals appear amidst gentle vocalizations, cicada thrum, bell rustlings, and dog barks. The flip side advances through haunted harpsichord- and tinkling piano-driven passages, weird folk detours, bell tolls, crackle-smeared conversations, and other synapse-firing moments. Even though the pieces are individually titled, the album plays like an impossible-to-predict phantasmagoria that unfolds largely without pause and fluctuates between moments soothing and unsettling. […]
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Łukasz Komła | Nowamuzyka.pl
Gruenrekorder: Angélica Castelló i Melissa Pons & Nils Mosh
Odwiedzam katalog niemieckiej wytwórni Gruenrekorder i odkrywam nowe wydawnictwa Angéliki Castelló oraz duetu Melissa Pons & Nils Mosh.
Angélica Castelló – „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin” (Gruenrekorder | lipiec 2023)
Sięgając po nowy album meksykańskiej kompozytorki, artystki dźwiękowej i kuratorki Angéliki Castelló uświadomiłem sobie, że pisałem o jej twórczości równo dziesięć lat temu przy okazji kasety „Silvertone E Il Sentimento Oceanico” wydanej w nieistniejącej już polskiej wytwórni MonotypeRec. Castelló ma na koncie różnego rodzaju współprace. Lista artystów jest naprawdę potężna, wśród nich m.in. Burkhard Stangl, Maja Osojnik, John Butcher, Dafne Vicente Sandoval, Wolfgang Mitterer, Martin Siewert, Kazu Uchihashim, Bonnie Jones, Jérôme Noetinger, Mario de Vega, Steve Bates.
Najnowsza i niedawno wydana na winylu płyta Castelló „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin” („Czternaście refleksji na temat końca”) jest zapisem instalacji dźwiękowej zaprezentowanej w Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca w Meksyku w 2019 roku. Czternaście fragmentów, których można słuchać całościowo ciągiem, jak i odbywać pojedyncze, wybrane fragmenty. Otwierający „Rómpeme” (słychać m.in. odgłosy intensywnie tłuczonego szkła) zapowiada, że nie będzie to łatwa podróż pod względem intensywności zestawianych ze sobą faktur, nagrań terenowych czy też zdekomponowanych lub skomponowanych struktur. Ten zestaw utworów powstał na podstawie dźwiękowej antologii Meksykanki.
Duże wrażenie zrobił na mnie fragment „Ira” mogący przypominać pobyt w jakiejś fabryce z potężnym industrialnym tłokiem bezlitośnie miażdżącym wszystko na swoje drodze, gdzie z niedookreślonego tła przedziera się wrzawa zbiorowych okrzyków oraz noise’owe chroniczne zgrzyty. „Ma fin” otula niespodziewanie lekkością ambientowej serpentyny, szepczących cykad i cichymi recytacjami po hiszpańsku.
Cykady mkną dalej w „Sicilia”, lecz są zderzane z jakąś nierozpoznaną emanacją „cyfrowego wiatru” i pomrukami w języku francuskim oraz odgłosami szumu fal radiowych. W „Gracias” z kolei kołyszące dźwięki chlupoczącej wody przenika ptasi i ludzki śpiew. Ten drugi, jakby wydobywający się z morskich głębin. Takie podwodne libretto o hipnotycznym syrenim powabie. Szorstkie „Muérete” jest jednocześnie silnie abstrakcyjne, a z drugiej strony odzywa się tu przyziemne ujadanie psa. „Silver” zamyka stronę A. Tu również można wyróżnić odgłosy padającego deszczu przesiąknięte zaś noise’owymi klastrami, w które zostały powtykane rozmaitych drobiny brzmieniowe.
Drugą stronę rozpoczynają w „Tombeau 1” klawesynowe repetycje powolnie transformujące do postaci romantycznego szumu. „Tombeau 2” to przeskok w zupełnie inną przestrzeń z nieco złowieszczo trzaskającym dźwiękiem palącego się ogniska (?) i podmuchem przeszywającego świstu wiatru. Ekspresyjne bicie dzwonów w „Bells” – np. z wież kościelnych – w surrealistycznym zestawieniu z ambientową delikatną elektroniką. Piękne ptasie trele wraz z fortepianową improwizacją zawinięte w drone’ową powłokę i spadającymi kroplami deszczu unoszą naszą wyobraźnię w „Un enfant”.
Odległe brzmienie fortepianu utrzymuje się w „Un homme” z zapętlonym kobiecym śpiewem operowym i orkiestrą w postaci cykad. Jeden z najpiękniejszych fragmentów z tego albumu. Podobnie również „Llorona”, w którym z dużą lekkością opadają przekleństwa w języku włoskim i towarzyszący im melancholijny szelest (czego?). Wieje tu – i nie tylko – hauntologią z rejonów projektu The Caretaker. Zamykający „Chanson triste” zalewa totalnie nasze zmysły ptasio-cykadową orkiestrą sprzęgniętą z dźwiękami zdeformowanej gry ludzkiej orkiestry. Wszystko jest tu niesamowicie płynne, abstrakcyjne i nie do końca łatwe do określania, opisania.
Niech każdy zinterpretuje po swojemu ów „koniec”, podany przez Angélikę Castelló na „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin” w czternastu różnych odsłonach. Według mnie całość wyśmienicie pracuje wewnątrz tej soundartowej kuli kosmicznych doznać dźwiękowych.
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Henry Kozok | radiohoerer
Release Tipp: Angélica Castelló – Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin / gruenrekorder
Wenn ich jetzt die Musik von Angélica Castelló höre, frage ich mich, wie ich sie im Mai’23 überhören konnte? Eine absolut eigenständige und faszinierende Klangwelt erwartet Euch. Das Ganze hat auch einen Vorteil. Es gibt sehr positive Kritiken und so kann ich auf diese Links verweisen und nur hoffen, dass ihr Lust bekommt, diese außergewöhnliche Künstlerin zu entdecken. Dazu gibt es noch ein Porträt von Nina Polaschegg über Angélica Castelló.
„Insgesamt präsentiert sich Angélica Castelló mit „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin” einmal mehr als eine Künstlerin mit einer eigenständigen musikalischen Idee und Vision. Ihre Arbeit ist experimentell, kühn und gleichzeitig fesselnd. Sie zeigt die Vielseitigkeit und kreative Herangehensweise von Angélica Castelló, die es ihr ermöglicht, durch Klänge und Musik emotionale und imaginative Welten zu erschaffen.“ (Michael Ternai)
Sendung über Angélica Castelló von Nina Polaschegg
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Frans de Waard | VITAL WEEKLY
Information is available about Angélica Castelló’s new record ‚Catorce Reflexiones Sobre El Fin‘, meaning ‚fourteen reflections on the end‘. She composed this music for an installation at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2019. She uses many field recordings, but according to the label, also she refers to her previous work, including voice work, recorded in very high and very low quality. I assume some recordings include her instrument of choice, the Paetzold recorder. There are fourteen pieces on this album (as they were on display in the installation, hanging from the ceiling), and I admit it also sounds like two long pieces, with the occasional silence occurring. The shuffling of a spade in the first piece, ‚Rómpeme‘, reminded me of digging a grave. There are more of these death references, such as the church bells of ‚Bells‘ or the shattering of glass, also an end. There are lots of animal sounds, and there is an eerie atmosphere throughout these pieces. In ‚Un Homme‘, there is the sound of an old record; there is a marching rhythm, jackhammer or funeral march? Hard to say. Castelló carefully uses reverb to add to the creepy atmosphere. It is uneasy music, but at the same time, it is beautiful uneasiness. The ‚death’/’end‘ theme is not throughout all these pieces; perhaps, they aren’t always that noticeable. Sometimes, she’s more observing the scenery from some distance, which makes it spooky, as if the impending doom is coming your way any time (and you know it will come to all of us). Castelló uses musique concrète techniques in mixing various sounds and telling a story, and she does that very well. No extensive processing techniques are used, but they are more collage-like, with seemingly unrelated sound events becoming one narrative. Of the three new releases by Gruenrekorder, this is the best, in terms of music, at least. There is an underlying concept, yet the music can be enjoyed without knowing too much about it.
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Rigobert Dittmann | Bad Alchemy Magazin (120)
Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin (gruen 193, LP), diese ’14 Reflexionen über das Ende‘, spenden zugleich den von Guillaume de Ma- chaut ausgesprochenen Trost der Ouroboros- schlange: Mein Ende ist mein Anfang und mein Anfang ist mein Ende. Die mexikanische Kom- ponistin ANGÉLICA CASTELLÓ, letztes Jahr 50 geworden, hat seit ihrem elektroakusti- schen Solo-Debut „Bestiario“ (2011) das In- teresse an ihr wachgehalten im Spiel mit Burkhard Stangl, Billy Roisz, Jérôme Noe- tinger oder dem Quintett Zimt und Veröffent- lichungen auf Interstellar und Mikroton. Ihr Instrumentarium sind die Paetzold-Bassflöte, Tape, Radio und Electronics, ihr komposito- risches Spektrum umfasst aber auch das vom Ictus Ensemble aufgeführte „Tres Texturas Arácnidas“ (2021) for electric guitar, viola da gamba, recorder, percussion sets, cassette player and electronic sounds, „Star Washers“ (2021) für Orchestra und Electronics, aufge- führt vom Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, oder das Musiktheater „Red Rooms“ (2022), dargeboten vom Ensemble PHACE und Wien Modern. Die Schlange, die hier sich windet und dreht, besteht aus Tonbändern. Gemus- tert ist sie: Mit metalloiden Drones und Per- cussion, krachiger noch als bei ihrem „Bodies of Noise“ für 2 Pianos, 2 Percussion Sets, Radios und Electronics. Mit rauschendem Wasser, nein, Düsenmaschinennoise und dunklem Pauken eines festlichen Umzugs. Sirren, Akkordeon und murmelnder Frauen- stimme. Stürmischem Brausen, weiter mur- melnden Frauen, einer Blaskapelle, singenden Mädchen, pfeifendem Glissando. Rauschen- dem Wasser, schrillem Pfeifen, überrausch- tem Singen. Sirren und katastrophischem Brausen, Schellackgesang, Hundegebell. Klir- render Percussion, dunklem Tuten, Regen, piepsenden und quakenden Vögeln. Die mit barocker Trauermusik anhebende B-Seite ist mit pfeifendem Sturmwind ähnlich verflochten durch Alltagslärm, Glockenläuten, Regen, Vogelstimmen, Klimperpiano, einem Kunst- lied, der aus Mädchenmund wehklagenden Geisterfrau ‚Llorona‘, die ihre Kinder ermordet hat. Und kulminiert als ‚chanson triste‘ mit hysterischen Grillen, aufgeregten Vögeln, ver- zerrter Musik. Doch wie gesagt, die Schlange beißt sich in den Schwanz.
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Michael Ternai | music austria
Mit „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin” (Grünrekorder) präsentiert ANGÉLICA CASTELLÓ einmal mehr ein eindrucksvolles Beispiel ihrer außergewöhnlichen musikalischen Idee.
Es ist faszinierend zu sehen, wie die Musikerin, Klangkünstlerin und Komponistin Angélica Castelló in ihrer neuesten Veröffentlichung „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin” ihre musikalischen Fähigkeiten und künstlerische Vision zum Ausdruck bringt. Die Tatsache, dass sie diese Stücke speziell für eine Installation im Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca komponiert hat, zeigt ihre Fähigkeit, mit anderen Kunstformen zu interagieren und ein Gesamtkunstwerk zu schaffen.
Angélica Castelló verwendet eine Vielzahl von Methoden und Klangquellen, um ihre Musik zu erschaffen. Field Recordings, Stimmaufnahmen, Tapes und Fragmente ihrer eigenen früheren Stücke sowie Anleihen aus anderen Werken kommen zum Einsatz. Durch Experimentieren mit verschiedenen Wiedergabeformaten, analoger und digitaler Verarbeitung, Improvisation und Dekonstruktion schafft sie ein elektroakustisches Klangschauspiel, das keine festgelegte Struktur hat, aber dennoch eine hypnotische und geheimnisvolle Kraft entfaltet.
Die Klanglandschaften von „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin” erzeugen suggestive Bilder von verborgenen Orten in den Köpfen der Zuhörerinnen und Zuhörer. Das Zusammenspiel von Klirren, Knistern, Dröhnen, Zirpen, Gezwitscher, entfernt erklingenden Melodiefragmenten, kaum verständlichen Sprachfetzen, dichten Soundschleiern und elektronischen Verfremdungen schafft eine einzigartige Atmosphäre. Es ist eine Musik, die sich von traditionellen Strukturen loslöst und den Hörerinnen und Hörern Raum für eigene Interpretationen lässt.
Insgesamt präsentiert sich Angélica Castelló mit „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin” einmal mehr als eine Künstlerin mit einer eigenständigen musikalischen Idee und Vision. Ihre Arbeit ist experimentell, kühn und gleichzeitig fesselnd. Sie zeigt die Vielseitigkeit und kreative Herangehensweise von Angélica Castelló, die es ihr ermöglicht, durch Klänge und Musik emotionale und imaginative Welten zu erschaffen.
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felix | freiStil – Magazin für Musik und Umgebung / #108
Vierzehn Reflexionen über das Ende ließ sich Angélica Castelló 2019 in ihrer elektroakustischen Musik zu einer Ausstellung von vierzehn Objekten im Museum zeitgenössischer Kunst in Oaxaca, Mexiko, einfallen. Was jetzt auf Schallplatte nachzuhören ist, sind flirrende, schwebende, sphärische, auch zärtliche akustische Interventionen – unter komplettem Verzicht falsch verstandener Ambientmusik, also auf einen schnöden Soundbrei. Ganz im Gegenteil: Castellós Klangerfindungen charakterisiert eine beinah gläserne Transparenz, selbst in ihren heftigeren Passagen bzw. Kulminierungen. Immerhin geht es um nichts weniger als das Ende! Einmal mehr besticht Castellós souveräner Umgang mit (unter anderem in Mexiko, Frankreich und Sizilien aufnommenen) field recordings, mit Kassetten, Stimmen, Radiofrequenzen und anderen handlichen, niederschwellig verfügbaren Quellen. Wenn man so will, eine demokratische, emanzipative Herangehensweise an die Elektroakustik, die konkrete Klänge in einen neuen Kontext stellt. Tonale wie sprachliche Vieldeutigkeiten bereichern die Erotik der Abstraktion. Etwa am Beispiel der Integration von kirchlichen wie revolutionären Liedern, beides ganz ohne Kitsch, aber immer mit einer Portion Empathie, oder in der Verwendung des spanischen Worts temporal, das sowohl temporär als auch einen Sturm bezeichnen kann. Wie also eigentlich eh immer, lässt uns Angélica Castelló auch hier an ihren inneren Abenteuern teilhaben und vermag sie zugleich, in den Ohren, Hirnen und Herzen der Hörenden auszulösen. Und das (ganz wichtig!) hübsch weit oben auf der Höhe der Ästhetik. Kunst, die eine/n unmöglich kaltlässt.
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Eyal Hareuveni | salt peanuts*
Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin (Fourteen reflections on the end) originated from a sound art installation of Mexican-Viennese composer and sound artist Angélica Castelló, inspired by the French medieval and poet Guillaume de Machaut, who wrote: «My end is my beginning and my beginning is my end». The installation presented 14 bodies woven with magnetic tapes hanging inert in space, exhibited at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2019. The album weaves 14 electroacoustic miniatures reflecting the sound art installation but with a life of their own. The album is released in a limited edition of 300 vinyls and a download option.
Like many of the works of Castelló, Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin is a reflective one and includes field recordings, tapes, self-references to previous works and sonic experiences, and voice recordings made specifically for these compositions. These fragmented elements were re-recorded in various formats, from low to high fidelity, analog and digital, then were composed, decomposed and recomposed. These 14 short pieces are sonic thoughts about the end, the farewell, and the return that is always renewed. They sound as if anticipating their end, whether absolute or temporal, of the many ways of being finite and of saying goodbye.
The album is a series of unsettling and elusive, quiet meditative journeys and emotional storms that embrace the sounds of shattered glass, stridulation of cicadas, church bells, murmurs in French, Italian maledictions, and soft recitations in Spanish. It moves between uproar to solace and is wrapped in a soft abstraction that only allows access to the subtle whisper of these expressions.
Mexican curator and writer Lorena Moreno Vera, who contributed the liner notes, described the listening experience to Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin as a dive into the void that encounters the «bewilderment announced by the scent of uncertainty condensed in the air’s humidity. The prelude to the storm, to something that will shake you from head to toe, something from which there will be no return». This impressive and thoughtful work marks a possible way out of this existential void.
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Guillermo Escudero | Loop
The Mexican composer, sound artist, improviser, curator and teacher, Angélica Castelló, releases her latest „Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin“ album, on the renowned Gruenrekorder, a German label that brings together artists from all over the world who carry out experimental works, using materials of all kinds and field recordings in specific places or in natural or urban environments. This label is also known for the series featuring field recordings and soundscapes.
Castelló studied classical recorder and composition in Mexico, Canada, Holland and Austria. She performs solo or in collaboration with other musicians between Mexico City and Vienna, the latter city, where she begins a career that already has over 20 years, publishing around 30 releases on labels such as Gruenrekorder, Interstellar records, Mikroton recordings, Monotype records, Mosz, among others. She composes for ensembles, fixed media, radio works, and installations and for the Paetzold recorder (at the RADAR festival, in Mexico City, in March 2010, alongside Burkhard Stang, Castelló played this recorder).
In this 14-piece album, she uses field recordings, recorded cassettes, radio and cassette devices, as well as the Paetzold tape recorder. Bells, clang noises, the nibs (or similar), objects that are thrown, broken glasses and a sustained whistle is the sound space of the opener “rómpeme”. “ira” takes place somewhere where screams are heard and mechanically repeated noises are produced, and for this reason the title of this track accounts precisely for this suffocating and altered atmosphere. ”ma fin” has a playful character due to its melodies that seem to be taken from an organ recording. Whereas, on „sicilia“ digital clicks are scattered while on one side a woman is heard a singing of a religious song and on the other, a woman tells a story in French. Two different moments that coexist at the same time. On “gracias” the sublime moment is also produced with an angelical song that along with static noises. Castelló’s sound world is abstract; the elements have a life of their own, evoking past eras such as the recording of a bolero singer that is included on “muérete”. The subtlety with which the fields recordings come out, which in some cases can be heard from afar (“tombeau1”), as if Castelló is off the scene, observing how the story unfolds. On „tombeau“ the sinuous whistles, the piano phrases and the babbling of mouth noises that Castelló makes over the microphone, is a closer approach to the recording; yet not as an observer but acting in it, as she being part of the plot. The chimes on „bells“ are a call to the people of the city/town, who want to congregate. It is part of a tradition; also, part of urban/rural music. On “un enfant” someone improvises on the piano, while the bird chirps breaks through this abstract piano set. “un homme”, the windy sound that is heard in the distance is the backdrop for an opera that slowly fades away, while being swallowed by the wind. “Llorona” captures the voice of a singer with the refrain of this legendary and sad Mexican song that ends in tragedy. Traumatic encounters is one of the issues that Castelló addresses in her work. To close this album, “chanson triste” combines the songs of crickets from a park, while in the distance a couple can be heard arguing. Another disagreement.
Angélica Castelló invites us to observe and feel a soundscape that triggers a reflection on death, traumatic encounters, fragility, the dreamworld and the subconscious.
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Gruenrekorder @ Bepi Crespan
CITR’s 24 Hours of Radio Art in a snack sized format.
Dark Ambient. Drone. Field Recordings. Noise. Sound Art. Or something.
bepi-crespan-presents/episode/20230526/
bepi-crespan-presents/episode/20230520/
framework radio | #848
phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley
Catorce reflexiones sobre el fin | Angélica Castelló