#compilation review

Release Date: February 14th, 1981

Genre: Ska

Rating: 8/10

Favorite Song: Inner London Violence

A Polar Visions / Polar Visions Amplitude review of -

Francisco López - a bunch of stuff (1980-2020)

Release date - July 2020

Reviewed format - Francisco López self-released (under the Nowhere Worldwide banner) USB business card, as kindly sent to me as a review copy by Francisco López

Note - you can purchase this release in digital format directly from Francisco López' Bandcamp page here: https://franciscolopez.bandcamp.com/album/a-bunch-of-stuff-1980-2020-40-years-of-sonogenic-composition

Welcome to the first review on Fluid Sonic Fluctuations review in 2021! Today I’m discussing Francisco López’s very large multi-part anniversary compilation a bunch of stuff (1980-2020) which was self-released by Francisco both as a neat USB business card and later reissued as download through Bandcamp in 2020. With this compilation Francisco is celebrating the 40 years he’s been creating immersive sonic compositions in the experimental and underground music scene, practicing his own coined way of sonogenic composition. a bunch of stuff (1980-2020) presents an excellent thematic overview of Francisco López’ discography through a large number of excerpts from his ever-growing universe of untitled compositions as well as titled pieces. The excerpts are organised into 15 parts which Francisco has tagged with his own invented genre names, which both point at his own personal sound philosophy but also have a subtle comic touch to them. Besides the excerpts, Francisco has also included several full-length (as well as almost full-length) as well as rare, unreleased and at the time of the original release still unreleased compositions making the compilations a great mixture of both showcase and rarities compilation. Whilst Francisco’s full-length compositions are often quite expansive in length making them suitable for a full-on immersion in the sonic universe created, the way every chronologically ordered part of a bunch of stuff (1980-2020) flows makes for a different yet equally intriguing and immersive listening experience with creative usage of both fades and hard cuts connecting the tracks together making every part that the full 12 hours worth of listening this compilation consists of a very rewarding listening experience. Francisco’s philosophy on both listening itself as well as his way of composing always originates first and foremost from the experience of listening in a very immersive sense which goes beyond source recognition or surface-level emotions but is very much settled in immersion within the sound world itself leaving the often cathartic, subconscious effects to the listeners themselves to feel and thereby completing the composition. Francisco himself reminds us of his philosophy but also shares some new insights on 40 years of sonogenic compositions in this mini-interview I did with him over email:

Orlando Laman - Over the last 40 years you've released a large number of your compositions, the selection on a bunch of stuff (1980-2020) is organized using your own invented genres. Regarding bringing together selections of compositions as collections through series (like recently, Two Head Snake) or by listeners themselves discovering certain connections between releases, how do you view your full collection of works as a whole, especially in the way all this shaped sonic matter is forming a sonic universe completed by the listener?

Francisco López - Well, as a whole I guess I see it as my way of having a more meaningful and richer interaction with the world. Not through representation (as in canonical so-called 'field recordings') but rather through penetration into sonic matter and its ontology.

OL - From listening to your compositions and interviews with you it's clear that most of the time you create compositions without planning things ahead, creating a system or trying to execute creative ideas through manipulated sound matter. It's a matter of composition that is both improvisatory based on the sounds themselves yet also very refined and perfectionist, which makes the compositions feel very natural but also unpredictable in captivating ways.

FL - This is what I call 'sonogenic composition', i.e., a practice of creative work with sound (and listening) in which sound themselves lead the way; not merely as 'samples' of elements to be placed in a pre-existing structure / grid / idea, but a generators of structure, pace, dynamics, texture and anything else imaginable in a sonic work. That's why I dislike the term 'manipulation'; in this context, I'd rather use 'evolution', which describes more reliably what takes place in this process.

OL -The results are more important than the tools used, however one thing that intrigued me is your manipulation and usage of low to sub-bass frequency layers of sound within many of your compositions, even those from the early 1980s, with low to sub-bass frequency sounds being an area of sonic matter that falls somewhere between the audible and felt area of sound and its direction being hard for humans to discern, how do you view this field of sonic matter relating to your compositions? Is it an area of the spectrum which you intuitively often accentuate in compositions or is this area one which you've gotten used to working with overtime to fully utilize the audible (and inaudible) spectrum of sound we can hear from sub-bass to very high frequencies?

FL - I like rich music, in all imaginable senses. That naturally includes the frequency spectrum, both audible and sensible (we do a lot of our hearing haptically in the low and sub-low ranges). As I've learned to compose largely through an intensive and extensive listening interaction with the world, those low frequencies are a 'natural' part of my sonic palette.

OL - a bunch of stuff(1980-2020) features excerpts which are often quite a bit shorter than your full compositions and releases, your full releases often feature long single compositions or a collection of shorter compositions making up one full "untitled" album release, besides these you've also released a few released a few albums which span several hour up til a full day worth of listening. In the compilation context and with the albums featuring shorter compositions the whole listening experience flows in an intriguing manner at times, with some pieces having a hard cut at the end rather than a fade-out or silence, this can have the effect at times of sudden realization of the composition's finite state within the album. Additionally, releases that span multiple hours can have the effect of the listener's listening mode moving from a focussed listening to a state in between listening and the sounds seeping into the subconscious of the listener creating certain emotions or triggering memories, What is your approach in selecting compositions for the albums and compilation releases, taking into account the listener experience? And further zooming in on time disappearing from our perception as we're fully focussed on the sounds, especially when listening to your multi-hour releases, is there a difference in terms of creating these extended-length releases to your other albums and compilation, relating to the listening experience you present?

FL - I like to be compositionally free to work with time. Traditional limitations like the length of a record or a radio show shouldn't limit our adventures in creative listening. To me, mega-long compositions (i.e., 24-hour or longer, like some of my pieces) generate micro-worlds of sonic experience that suggest a different kind of listening -one that gets closer to a form of 'inhabiting sound', which is tremendously suggestive. Different people will approach such extensions in varied ways, but I believe they always generate an unusual and fruitful potential for a very different, interesting and appealing experience of sonic matter as space and as time.

Many thanks to Francisco López for sending over the physical release as well as answering these questions and sharing such inspiring insights. Before we dive into the analyses of the separate parts as well as thoughts on my favourites tracks on this compilation I’ll mention what you can expect from the physical version of a bunch of stuff (1980-2020). Like most of Francisco’s releases the focus is all on the music and immersive sonic experience itself, so the USB business card itself features quite minimalistic design combined with a lovely photo of fire however. The content of the USB business card itself is a liner notes PDF file as well as the full compilation with 15 folders making up all the parts. Every folder contains the tracks as lossless 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality files. While the best listening experience of Francisco Lopez’ work is by going into the compositions with a fully clear mind without knowing in advance what to expect in terms of a description or listings of sources used, the liner notes file does list the sound sources for some some of the tracks although Francisco isn’t getting specific about what these exactly consist of so beside the credits and tracklist parts not spoiling anything these source details are still staying cryptic enough to not reveal the workings behind the magic of Francisco’s compositions. Let’s now dive into a bunch of stuff (1980-2020).

a bunch of stuff (1980-2020) starts with first part All In. All In features a collection of pieces that mix various compositional approaches López takes together, with the All In being appropriate as “maximalist” pieces in terms of density of the sound matter or layering. In terms of sound matter I spotted bird and cicadas but there are also some “hidden” melodies in some of these pieces, either through certain resonances within the sound layers used or as series of tones that peek through the textures. López’ signature very low sub bass frequencies (also mentioned in my mini-interview and subtle glitches also appear within these pieces. In my favourite track 2012 - With_In [excerpt] López brings us an eerie tapestry of mysterious swirling resonant wheezing sound that flutters left and right, makes percussive shifting clicks to the left and right side and appears as this cloud of shaky sonic matter we are floating in ourselves. The perspective shifts from within (no pun intended) the sound matter to looking at this matter from a distance but the general experience is definitely very much grounded within the sound itself. The aforementioned hidden melodies appear in this piece too, in the form of hollow resonant diffuse tones that add this mysterious ambience of uncertainty to the emotional situation that might arise from our being in this environment. Whilst quick shifts do occur in some of Francisco’s compositions, the gradual continuous nature of this piece definitely helps the subtle shifting of focus within the layers of sounds as well letting the sonic matter work onto your mind in a certain meditative state. Delusional Cinematic follows, which features chopped up, at times quite abrasive collage like compositions of various sound matter including environmental sounds, movie sounds and music fragments. At times the compositions are stylistically comparable to Noise in their uncompromising more harsher edged nature. The pieces also feature rather clever transitions making for listening experiences that are as captivating as films or TV series themselves but in this case the imagery is purely mind-created.The strengths of my favourite track 2017 - untitled #360 [excerpt] are both in the silent brooding atmosphere of the composition within this longer 10:27 minutes excerpt and the way it progresses from one situation to the other. Starting from this eerie minimalist situation featuring quite a lot of shifting, rustling and clicking high pitched sonic matter there is something quite eerie about the idle space in between the sounds which creates a bit of a vacuum effect within the space and the at times wildly varying spectra and panning of the sounds themselves makes for quite some disjointed bits and pieces being scattered around this space as well, feels quite like being in a medieval village whilst sounds appear and disappear out of nowhere. In its second phase the piece moves into a battlefield of wild low frequency laden combat, helicopter whirling, a lot of (gun)shots and a further brooding mass of low frequency rumbling following up the first phase’s more resonant metallic waves of lower pitched sound. The transition from the battle to the dive underwater in which the battle can still be heard but in a more muffled state is one of my favourite aspects from this piece as it does add such a natural flow to the aural narrative this conjures up in my mind. I’d say this piece does mix Francisco’s more purely textural qualities with an inspired sense of rapid-cut composition making this one of his pieces which you can listen to through filtering and diving into its layers as well as letting your mind make up its own story through the progression from phase to phase within the composition. The next part Drone World features Drone pieces in the sense of especially hypnotic high frequency streams of sound, rhythmic sounding environmental sound matter as well as low bass frequencies and resonances. My favourite piece on this part is 1992 - Hypogeion [excerpt]. The piece is noticeably quite a bit louder than the other compositions before it on this part and whilst Francisco is clearly not trying to make a composition in a traditional manner this piece stylistically does remind me of 90’s Tribal Ambient, albeit in a more improvised manner. Featuring an array of highly resonant and bassy mallet tones as well as reverberant tribal style percussion the except of this piece showcases a particularly intense part of the composition moving into a more laid-back sustained phase. Somewhere in between mysterious factory and Egyptian pyramid sonics it features some excellent mixtures of dense tonal layers blending into each other with the overtones creating diffuse and at times dissonant interactions of sound. The percussive elements are quite high pitched throughout with quite some crystal like sounds flowing throughout the sonic space like grains of silver but overall the layers of sound flow much more like rippling shuddering waves that are often shifting from interlocking to interfering creating that always captivating element of mystery within Francisco López’ compositions. Afterwards in the Lo-Fi Broad-Band Tape Noiselationism part we have Noise oriented pieces made up of collages of sound matter of an Industrial and more organic nature as well as AM radio sourced sounds in compositions that feature some sweet droning and rhythmic sub bass frequencies. The pieces are more minimalist in terms of composition but equally captivating and showcase the more extreme side of López oldest works. My favourite track 1983 - untitled (1983) [excerpt] features most of the aforementioned elements. It’s a raw, lo-fi composition made up of various layers of electronic signals broadcast over shortwave radio with its beginning being the most recognisable in terms of source. However as always with Francisco’s compositions, the immersive experience is much more important than trying to further analyze what the actual sounds are and in this case it’s a particularly physical listening experience. The sound is grainy and often artefact laden, filled with hiss and sharp frequencies and in this fragment there is some kind of pattern of tones recognisable within its first half, as a whole however it sounds more like flying through an electric interference laden sky in which bits of metal are swirling around you in this cloud of disturbance and interference. Unlike some of the other 1980s composition excerpts on this compilation however this piece features a few hard cuts and changes to different clouds of fragile sound. Whilst being a continuous stream of hissy sound matter the piece eventually breaks up into shards of sharp irregular shaped sound movements until the fade-out. It’s definitely quite noisy in a way but I feel it’s also quite organic as all of Francisco’s works are, the sounds flow as freely as nature does and never feel artificial compared to what generally is considered as natural sounds. Following part Medium With No Message moves through various types of recording and playback medium based compositions both analogue and digital but actually does recall a lot of the crackling sounds and resonances from Francisco’s environmental sound matter based works as well. There is some recognisable glitch work in the last piece however but this again sounds more crystalline like than the at times clinical sounding works by other Glitch oriented artists. When we look at my favourite piece on this part 2002 - untitled #128 we find a piece that is minimalist in terms of its textural density. Quite like a breeze of wind subtly increasing in intensity, crackles, ticks, pops and other little grains of sound matter gradually build up a subtle rustling cloud of sound accompanied by mysterious tonal elements. Just like the diffuse spectrum of a light shower combined with how you can sense a lot of details in these sounds within quieter environments this piece offers a lot of depth, ever-changing bits of sounds within the subtly intertwined layers as the fluid qualities of the sound grip your ears and mind in a both intriguing and enjoyable manner. In the following part Mutated Locations we can find pieces based on environmental sound matter which are evolved into repeating rhythms, strange resonances as well as eerie and metallic layers of sound. The first few pieces carry Francisco’s darker Industrial like sonic approach to composition whilst pieces later on within the track list have a lighter (cleaner) sound and utilise the sub bass frequencies in a more intense manner as well as featuring less audible techniques of evolving sound matter. Whilst Francisco’s compositions aren’t really dark, I do often get a pretty eerie feeling from some pieces which I do like a lot and the more directly hitting approach of some of the compositions works better than the forced subtlety that some other sound artists would try to keep within their compositions. In my favourite track on this part, 2014 - untitled #321 [excerpt] we have a rather gripping flow of events. Just like the other tracks surrounding this one there’s quite a lot of depth in this piece and the imagery conjured up in my mind by this composition also particularly feels like looking at this sonic environment from above. As I felt this piece, it’s like a mass of clattering and shifting sounds as well as rather high pitched details quickly increasing in intensity as the layers demand more and more attention culminating into some particularly spooking train whistle like tones which keep hanging in the air at the end of this except until fade-out. The whole track feels quite like exploring one of these areas in which unused train carriages are stored, some of which rusting and degrading away until we’re suddenly transported to a used railway in which a brownish grey transport train is just about heading our way. Then on the following part Nice Noise we indeed have a collection of Noise styled compositions by Francisco which ranges from early metallic sound matter collages forming streams of layered Noise to more glitchy and granulated sounds in later tracks, cleaner hissy sounds with the last track blending these elements together in a similar way like pieces on the All In part. This last track, 2020 - untitled #380 [except] is also my favourite piece from this part. With Francisco combining various approaches from the 4 decades he is active by now within this piece he also created a very captivating mysterious sonic environment within this piece which is less abstract than other pieces but makes for a very unique listening experience with its combination of environmental sounds and brooding hypnotic tones. It’s quite like this dream about a cold dark forest you find yourself in which is “breathing” as one entity, with the animals providing soundtracks to this process of breathing through the hissy and hollow sounds they produce, the strange low thumps at the end, further thicken the surreal plot of this sonic story. Non-Representational Environmental Sound Matter is the part that follows and is in a way similar to Mutated Locations in terms of selection but inverts the compositional approach by showcasing Francisco’s environmental sound matter pieces with less extreme evolution within the sound matter itself but instead use some great layering, unpredictable structures and amplification creating immersive listening experiences in which some sounds are still recognizable at times but form elements within newly composed environments that are like the title says different from just reality. The excerpts on this part are also longer and feature more gradual progressions within which makes for more meditative like listening experiences as you shift your focus through the various layers within. My favourite piece in here is 2011 - Hyper-Rainforest [except]. It’s the longest excerpt Francisco has taken from any piece on this compilation but it’s also especially good that he’s selected a long part of it in the editing process as it’s a rather subtly enveloping composition. There’s a lot of sonic details of the rainforest you can pick up in this one, especially the many different animals within the rainforest, but also various other natural environmental sounds. One of the best things about the way this piece is composed however is the combination of shifting layers with an almost narrative like progression of sonic situations and directions, but all the while staying within the same sonic universe, giving us the ability to travel without moving, but in a different sense. I found it particularly enjoyable to shift through listening modes, at times spotting certain sounds, at other times taking in the effect of the entities within the sound matter and letting the fabric of each of this work on mind as well as sense of depth in the sonic space through listening. Indeed through the shifting layers you also start to sense the location of certain sounds within the depth of the piece as at times having a strangely reverberating acoustic distance to them whilst still sounding as being in the same sonic universe making for a quite magical listen. The progression of the piece towards the rain shower which abruptly ends into a sudden quiet section of soft chirping sounds adds a radio play like narrative element to the piece too as Francisco provides a bit of a frame for the behaviour of all sonic elements within the piece as certain changes that appear within this environment. It heightens the immersion too as not only do the changes make your part of the sonic universe, but they also point towards the deeper subconscious effects of streams of full spectrum sound matter like rain and the many layers of diffusion hidden around the centre of it. In the following part Sonic Seeds and Mega-Evolution Francisco utilises sonic seeds, which sound similar in approach to grains of sound to sculpt mostly unrecognisable sound matter into richly resonant, metallic and often glitchy forms. This part starts with an amalgamation of layers of sonic matter, after which the pieces grow ever more rhythmic and at times recognisably melodic in a way. The results of this sonic approach are somewhat similar to some pieces in the Nice Noise part but in this case the compositions are showcasing more of Francisco’s abstract Glitch like works, differing from his compositions grounded in environmental sonic matter but still bearing some similarities with the organic sound matter in terms of crackling clicks and the usage of high frequency sound. My favourite piece on this part is 2020 - untitled #383 [excerpt] and this one is a particularly glitchy composition. Following a nice gradual progression throughout this excerpt, the composition builds from a cloud of metallic crackles to a final section of glowing droning tones. All throughout we can dive into the various layers of clicky and mostly pointy sound matter that make up the framework of sonic actions that make up this composition feeling somewhere between machinery rhythms and liquid organic matter. The buzzing glitched “bass” tones make for a great ground of the framework, driving the composition forward with quite rumbling low frequencies which when combined with the glowing tones of the final section make for a quite intriguing combination of abstracted rhythmic sound and glowing diffuse sound combined within the same sonic universe. It does remind me a bit of Autechre as well in terms of approach, although in a less chaotic and more organic manner. Afterwards in the part Soundtracks With No Real Subservience we can listen to a selection of soundtrack pieces by Francisco, composed for various films, including art films and documentary. Moving from intense Noise like compositions towards less abrasive compositions featuring concrete and environmental sound matter, Francisco works with sounds within a more narrative type of fashion with the pace of the compositions being quicker and having more of an emotional edge to them. There’s also some more division in sections audible within these pieces as well as the darker qualities of environmental sound matter. In my favourite piece 2016 - Anima Ardens [excerpt] we are presented with another intriguing situation as the piece combines quite peaceful organic sound matter with layers of metallic clangs as well as a brooding diffuse tonal cloud hanging in the air. Quite like finding a mysterious wooden house which is also used as a metal workshop the juxtaposition also makes it feel quite like roaming around in the forest at night. The sharp swirls and clicking sounds, combined with the hollow tones and clangs instantly conjure up quite some magical imagery as these elements start to blend into each other as well as change or fade out whilst remaining a continuous flow of sound keeping its grip on you within the sonic universe. Next part The Ultra-Quiet, Not Conceptual features some of Francisco's quietest pieces. Indeed these are excerpts from his pieces that feature quite a lot of very quiet sound matter and silence moving from a hollow resonant flow of sound to soft rustling and clicks to some surprisingly intense sections of sub-bass frequencies in later pieces within this part. These sub-bass frequency section do also feature in my favourite piece on this part, 2013 - untitled #309 [excerpt] and in this case they’re accompanied by muffled mysterious drones that fade into soft-focus out of the silence. Like most pieces on this parts it’s a very subtle listening experience best listened to on good speakers, including a subwoofer or headphones with a good bass response to properly hear the subtle sonics Francisco builds up in her creep out of their corners. Afterwards on the next part VirtuAural Machines Francisco zooms in on his machinery based pieces. The part features a mixture of approaches to the sonic experience of machinery itself moving from relatively rough softly saturated Industrial like pieces to the usage of percussive mechanical elements to create hypnotic sonic framework as well as eerie sonic universes made up of huge halls filled with heavy clangs of equipment, siren like diffuse, distant tones and pointy and hissy sonics blending together into enveloping streams of sound around us. Whilst some of the sources on this part are at times recognisable in a way, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had once again by the strange textural qualities of the sound matter as these entities in themselves have a particular enjoyable quality within them here, which is helped by the often spacious panning within the compositions. Favourite piece 1990 - Fango de Euriptéridos [excerpt] utilises the aforementioned spacious panning rather well and also amplifies another aspect of machinery in that it’s based a lot around shimmering tonal resonances reverberating through a large spaces rather than emphasising the (harsh) hissing and repetitive elements of machinery. It features various types of sonic actions but the general sonic focus is on this warm glowing mass of resonance that vibrates in certain ways as well, creating shifting droning tones that seem to make the floor vibrate as well. A quite “temple” like approach to an Industrial sonic universe. Following part Within The Noosphere features a rather different kind of compositions by Francisco in that most of these pieces are built up out of many layers of other music, which are evolved in various manners. Moving from pretty intense tape collages to tumbling Plunderphonics Metal barrages to the rather amusing wailing stretched tones of the old song sampled of a vinyl recorded on the last track it’s Francisco’s compositional work at its most structurally and sonically disruptive. Favourite piece 1994 - Concert for 300 Magnetic Tapes [excerpt] feels quite like a mountain landscape built out of many types of sonic matter. Most matter used within this piece is quite noisy, quirky and quite explosive too but the general fuzzy and crumbling nature of all these bits combined does still conjured up this curious imagery of a mountain landscape made up of sonic material. Recognisably musical and human sounds are at times still audible in between the cracks of the mass of sound, but in a subtle way. The following part Xeno-Instruments features a selection of Francisco’s “acoustic” pieces, in the sense that some of the compositions do feature acoustic musical instruments, at times without much audible post-production. The results are quite mysterious as can be expected from Francisco’s approach, feeling quite like the sound of the earth crust being broken open, sharp clouds of buzzing sonics, thundering percussion rhythms and wooden rumbles travelling through the room. Indeed most of the time it’s not even audible that there are actual acoustic instruments used, which is definitely the quality of Francisco’s work in that he consistently keeps evolving the sonic universes he conjures up and can find richness, “alien” new elements as well as captivating details though any method of composition and with any sound matter he finds making for a very solid but still diverse body of work. The aforementioned wooden rumbles feature in my favourite piece 2011 - untitled #275 [excerpt]. Built up out of rhythmic elements, low rumbles as well as diffused spooky tones the piece progresses in a subtle and deep manner. There’s this great metallic bell like clang that creates regular accents in the first half of this excerpt filling the room with rich resonance periodically. The rhythmically moving wooden elements form irregular patterns that do follow a certain scheme of sections in terms of there appearance and are spiky but also somewhat dampened in nature. Strangely reverberating tones almost form a diffuse melody in the second half which then moves into a brooding cloud of tonal sonic matter. It’s the kind of piece that feels somewhere in between your room starting to create its own sonic universe as well as the sonic picture of an abandoned wooden windmill’s mechanical sounds of past activity. Final part Yes, Humans features compositions that all feature recognisable human sounds or traces of these in various manners moving from amusing locally recorded environmental sound matter to layered children’s choir recordings and a further direction of ever more evolved and abstract sound matter culminating in one of Francisco's most recent compositions (from the last few years) on the final track. This final part quite nicely compiles Francisco's approaches in a way, as radio play like recordings moving in the ever more mysterious abstract and at times cinematic sonics of Francisco’s later works. My favourite track here is the rather short but sweet 1992 - Sofia [excerpt]. In nature is more straight-forward than other pieces on this part but I do find the juxtaposition and sounds themselves within this piece rather nice. It starts with a TV recording of some kind of Soviet TV commercial which sounds all cosy and sweet but afterwards cuts to this Russian Orthodox(?) church in which can hear chants. I especially do like this combination as the commercial seems to recall the memories of the Soviet Union in perhaps a bit overly rosy manner while the church sounds totally loose from anything that might conjure up bad memories and sounds much more peaceful in a way. The way you can hear Francisco walking around the church as well as all kinds of extra noises including a loud cough, footsteps and muffled talking adds to the amusing nature of this piece. The lo-fi nature of the recording also makes the chants themselves feel more like a cloud of tonal sonic matter as syllables get a bit drowned out in the recording. Francisco López’ a bunch of stuff (1980-2020) is an excellent compilation showcasing a great selection of Francisco’s rich discography of compositions which by now reach over 40 years. Full of immersive, uncompromising sonics this compilation is a rewarding listen for anyone who wants to get into Francisco’s music and wants to have a curated overview of his discography to get started diving into his full-length and shorter releases. There’s also some great material in this compilation for fans of Francisco who already have multiple of his releases as the rarer material and recent pieces offer some further sonic enjoyment and the compilation’s selection and sequencing also offers a new more mixtape style manner to enjoy Francisco’s compositions. It’s a recommended compilation for anyone who wants to get into Francisco López as well as fans of Noise, Sound Art, Tape based experimental music, Glitch as well as a uniquely personal approach to sound matter based experimental music, sonogenic composition. Definitely check this out.

Polar Visions Amplitude / Fluid Sonic Fluctuations - Cross reviewing:

Gamardah Fungus - 10 Years Compilation: Singles, Rarities, Remixes

Self-released on September 9, 2020 by Gamardah Fungus

Reviewed format: review copy of the Gamardah Fungus self-released compilation as lossless WAV files in master-quality resolutions up to 32-bit/44.1kHz. Many thanks to Igor Yalivec for sending this over.

Selected connected listening: More music by Gamardah Fungus in the form of albums and compilation tracks is available on physical format and as downloads from their Bandcamp page (https://gamardahfungus.bandcamp.com)

The Metempsychosis compilation as well as other dark experimental Ukrainian underground music is available from Khatacomb (https://khatacomb.bandcamp.com)

Most Monocube albums are available on physical and digital format from this Bandcamp page (https://monocube.bandcamp.com)

Gamardah Fungus is a name that you might’ve come across earlier on through this blog if you’ve been following this blog for a longer time and indeed I have reviewed a track of theirs earlier as featured on the excellent Kaleidoscope compilation released on Flaming Pines last year. After the release of their excellent new album Natural Storm on Hidden Vibes at the end of that same year, the Ukrainian duo consisting of experimental musician and sound artist Igor Yalivec and guitarist Sergey Yagoda recently returned with a new self-release on CD celebrating the 10 year anniversary of this project. Titled 10 Years Compilation: Singles, Rarities, Remixes, the CD includes a selection of compilation appearances as well as remixes of 3 Gamardah Fungus tracks by associated Breakcore and Drill & Bass infused Drum & Bass project Submatukana (which features Igor Yalivec). Gamardah Fungus combines Drone Doom inspired guitar performances by Sergey with Igor’s rich electronic and electro-acoustic layers forming a kind of Ambient that blends at times lush calm atmospheres with the darkness of Metal, hazy distortion and elements of Noise, field recordings as well as looped drum recordings into their signature style. It’s because of this interesting mixture of Ambient with darker underground music influences that I’ve tagged this review under both Polar Visions Amplitude and Fluid Sonic Fluctuations as the music encompasses various crossing approaches to sound and melody. This variation is also apparent in the quite diverse approach you’ll hear on this compilation, differing from track to track whilst still retaining the melancholic, somewhat hopeless but also calming feelings Gamardah Fungus’ music radiates, with the three remixes being more consistent and similar in approach. The CD obviously enables you to check out Dmitry Khabarov’s excellent cover artwork printed on a nice cardboard sleeve but also in the digital format of my review copy (similar to the download version) it looks great. The tribal like ritual style from the etch like black and white image makes me think of imagery depicting ancient gods and various animals sacrificed to theses gods in auspicious times above the fire. It’s got a lovely non-symmetrical style to it with creatures, flowers, elegant decorations flowing around the square making this a lovely “classic” kind of artwork that does match the more organic elements of the music on the album, especially those featuring nature recordings. Further into my review copy I have the promo PDF and the 10 tracks in the format that they were mastered in, 16-bit/44.1kHz but with track 1 being in 16-bit/48kHz and track 8 in 32-bit/44.1kHz. Several tracks on this compilation are indeed remastered or remixed but the sound quality is consistently great throughout and there’s no jumps in loudness too. Now let’s jump into the 10 tracks featured on this 10 Years Compilation.

10 Years Compilation starts with Zen Garden, a lush atmospheric piece that can bring you into a quite relaxing state of mine as suggested with the title. Featuring calm minimalist clean guitar melodies over a warm flowing mellow drone and subtle field recordings of crickets the piece is the quietest track on the whole compilation but already does have some mystery within its summery warm ambience. Tube-like resonant tones flow through the piece like the eerily braking distant trains and the phaser effected sound of the guitar gives it a bit of a more psychedelic edge than other pieces on this compilation. Clanging metallic sounds like the bells ringing near a railroad crossing add some surreal imagery to the mixture which sounds both calming but also a bit foreboding. A sweet calm start to the compilation. Human Or Not follows which moves us into darker, more dystopian territory, featuring an electronic ambience that’s a bit more stripped back the piece revolves a lot around the heavier distorted melodic guitar phrases that tumble and scatter around the stereo field. The atmosphere we have here is more one of a certain threat, uncertainty about the future, an inner struggle. With the title Human Or Not you can already guess that indeed there’s some kind of question the music seems to ask continuously. Am I Human, is this technologically ever advancing world overtaking the humanity and natural things? The flowing drone background is ominous in its subdued texture through which sharper tones periodically chime like an alarm tone sneakily disguised as a friendly notification sound whilst the guitar expresses the aforementioned struggle through sad repeated tones, gliding and brittle clicking string noises. Like on the previous piece Zen Garden, guitar and electronics interplay in this track in a great manner with both elements embracing each other in waves of tone and sound that rise and fall in an almost improvisatory manner with both guitar and electronics at times rising to the foreground to express their urgency or fragile underlying emotions. On the next track Fetus Crying Gamardah Fungus brings us a more straight-forward piece of music which follows a more traditional compositional structure. The piece is pretty much a slow droning Metal track though the drums of the track are actually looped drum recordings rather than a studio recording of drums with slow sombre clean guitar riffs slowly building towards a distorted hazy distorted climax until building towards the clean ending melodies of the piece that softly fade out afterwards. In terms of sounds the piece is not the most distinct track on this compilation with the electronics taking quite a background position here, though vinyl crackles can be heard alongside the guitar and drums giving it a bit of a different flavour but it’s an enjoyable good and intense track nonetheless and keeps up the dark eerie ambience we’ve gotten into from Am I Human onwards rather well. With Clean Eyes Of My Childhood Gamardah Fungus returns to the drone-based approach of their music in a piece which features some tasty creative improvisational aspects to the guitar performance as well as an eerily calm pulsating quality to the drone driving the piece. Sergey Yagoda plays introspective and contemplating melodic phrases which he breaks up more and more with clicking, at times wooden sounding string noises and harmonics which combined with the reversed delay on the guitar add to the organic narrative quality of the guitar. Igor Yalivec’s electronics follow more of slow crescendo in this piece with the warm resonant pulsating drone often showcasing a rich brightness every time it rises, soft cello-like tones also fading in around half-way into the piece to ever grow in intensity in the second half though never overshadowing Sergey’s guitar. With its intriguing combination of warm electronics and a free-flowing guitar performance which carries rawer distorted sonics the piece makes for a great listening experience blending lush “classical” Ambient elements with Avant-Garde improvisation. Afterwards on Sea Salt (with Monocube) we dive into darker territory, with Monocube’s deeply flowing electronics centred in the stereo image, Gamardah Fungus’ layers within the piece, guitar and sampled drums make for a cinematic sombre listening experience that again feels quite “classic” in its approach with the music feeling quite organic and like a live performance. Feeling quite like the soundtrack to the environment of a deserted landscape or a terrifyingly quiet city Sergey’s guitar performance leads the piece with subtly narrating, clicky melodic phrases, a times running through crunchy edge of high-end distortion. Monocube’s electronics create a metallic river of mysteriously flowing droning tones and wide stereo-panned high pitched screeches, not quite emitting a feeling of dread but things aren’t looking to good for us they seem to be saying. The scattering low pitch-shifted drums and vinyl crackle add abstract percussive elements to the piece that aren’t driving the music but rather seem to be rhythmically transported shards and debris of demolished buildings and rubble, not very harsh but quite murky definitely. The rising and falling pulsating quality to Monocube’s electronics do remind me a bit of the previous track but have a more Industrial quality to them, being less glowing and more inherently metallic. This is definitely a great mixture of Gamardah Fungus’ sombre droning atmosphere’s with Monocube’s refined approach to Dark Ambient, a fine piece of music again. Forester Blues follows, which is a much lighter piece of music in comparison. Featuring more minimalistic electronics in the form of a looped field recording recorded in a forest forming the backing of Sergey’s guitar the piece feels more like a melodic natural soundscape. The melodic phrases on guitar are this time repeated by a looping pedal / device with which an ever growing structure of looped layers of melody, overtones as well as subtly scratchy tones is created, flowing in a calm but also mysterious fashion creating the ambience of sitting somewhere in the middle of the forest around a little campfire at night hearing all the surrounding sounds of shifting leaves and wolf-like noises. These aforementioned sounds can be directly heard in the field recording in which the guitar is placed as if the sound is softly reverberating in the forest. Besides describing the ambience of the forest this piece could also be interpreted as actually being the soundtrack to a walk through the forest at night, with the ever increasing number of looped guitar layers expressing the ever-increasing awareness we suddenly get whilst discovering all corners of the forest, the secret nocturnal animal activities that are suddenly laid bare to us. All in all, it’s an intriguing different sonic approach Gamardah Fungus brings to us here and another great chapter within this increasingly varied sounding compilation. Afterwards we have the last original track on 10 Years Compilation, Kyiv Underground. At 13:56 minutes it’s the longest track on here and also the most guitar-focussed one with the piece essentially consisting of an extended guitar solo by Sergey backed by manipulated hazy and Noise like field recordings by Igor creating the most Metal / Noise like music that you can find on here. Sergey’s solo is focussed around a dark dramatic droning note that he returns to quite often as the base of the swirling melodic phrases that plays. The phrases have quite a lot of passion and energy within them, with Sergey varying the melody from screeching wails to wavering overtone rich laments, afterwards returning to the base tone with ever-increasing thick layers of noisy gritty distortion. The melodies start of quite slow at the beginning of the piece but move towards fiery high-pitched speed acrobatics that still do carry the dread-filled mysterious ambience that’s much enhanced by Igor Yalivec’s murky and strange sonic manipulations. These manipulations include the sounds of the metro underground, including an announcers voice, noises from the subway trains themselves as well as indiscernible bits of voice and vary from ghostly washes to strangely electronic blips as well. It also sounds like Igor’s manipulating the guitar melodies themselves too at times with tones at times sounding like falling into hazily diffuse shadows of darkness adding to the stereo delay effect that already makes for a nice scattered effect of the guitar melodies. Kyiv Underground is the most melody driven piece but also one of the darkest and noisiest on the compilation without the layers blending too much into each other. It showcases Gamardah Fungus’ harsher and more abstracted side rather well and I feel this piece could also be a great entry point for listeners with more Noise / Industrial oriented tastes. Afterwards we got the first of the three Submatukana remixes that close off the compilation which is the Submatukana Remix of Burning Church of Eternal Sorrow. As mentioned in my introduction these remixes fall into the Drum & Bass territory mixed with influences from other related styles and this first remix indeed does feature some nice breaks and buzzing bass tones accompanying the chopped up guitar melody. In the remix Submatukana use this guitar melody in a looped manner as the melodic base around which the synths and bass hover featuring a warm bell-like “classic” Drum & Bass style tinkling melody as well as rhythmic pulsation in the bass synth line. The breaks themselves are quite familiar sounding in nature but Submatukana does chop them up rather nicely and they build up the remix in a quite progressive manner, gradually increasing the number of layers and afterwards dissecting them in a subtle manner. Just like the two remixes to follow the music is more straight-forward in nature than the original pieces but the music is nicely produced and enjoyable as it never gets repetitive. One thing I did notice however is that these remixes, like unfortunately happens more often with Drum & Bass tracks have rather boosted high frequencies in the mastering which make the hi-hats and cymbals become a bit washy and close to masking some of the other instruments but the sound quality is still good in any case. The Submatukana Remix of Advocatus Diaboli which follows uses more of the melody from the original track to build up the remix with a large chunk of the distorted guitar melody mixed with clean arpeggios being used as base of the bass melody of the piece. Sombre and dramatic in nature the melody gives off a great doom-laden ambience which mixed with the full-bodied breaks and scrunchy bass makes for an energetic piece of music but there are also some nice creative touches beyond this like the Ukrainian (?) voice sample and funky electric piano in the first half of the remix adding some quirky vibes to the remix as well as some sweet filter usage on the breaks in the second half of the remix. Definitely a fun and varied listen. After this we have the third Submatukana Remix and final track from the 10 Years Compilation, which is of the track Opium. I’d say that in approach this one is the most minimalist with Sergey’s moody dense guitar melodies being mostly used as a hazy background to a quite stretched out section of squelchy bass wobbles forming the Dubstep inspired sound of the remix. The drums are a bit further back in this remix being more a programmed but also crunchy distorted type of Industrial Techno rhythms. At the end of the remix we do have a rather nice section of glitchy tones and clanging metallic percussion too. Overall the remix makes a pretty interesting Eastern Asian kind of mystery out of the dense guitar melody from the original track with flute like synth enhancing this influence and the bass wobbles are varied enough to keep the energy at a consistent level throughout the remix. A fine closing track to this excellent compilation. With 10 Years Compilation, Gamardah Fungus brings us a great varied selection of original tracks and sweet remixes that showcases both their warm atmospheric and their darker more mysterious side. The creative merging of flowing, pulsating electronic and field recordings of Igor Yalivec and Sergey’s passionate and at times improvisational guitar performances makes for a compilation that takes you on a sonic journey to various emotional states of mind as well as walking through the rich mysteries of nature. I award this compilation a Polar Visions Amplitude of 95 dB. I highly recommend this compilation and there’s plenty of great music in here for both fans of lush Ambient and more experimental darker styles of underground music. Check this out.

“Delving deep into the history of Punk and New Wave”: No More Heroes (Compilation Review)

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