Forma/Metabolist Meter (Foster. Cottin. Caetani And A Fly)

Since 2012, French electro-acoustic institution INA GRM and Editions Mego, the Austrian experimental label run by Peter Rehberg, have been issuing vintage and historical electro-acoustic and musique concrete recordings by composers such as Pierre Schaeffer, Bernard Parmegiani, and Luc Ferrari under the Recollection GRM imprint. In 2020, the two organizations established a new series titled Portraits GRM that focuses on commissioned works by contemporary composers. Its second release, following a decades-in-the-making work by Jim ORourke, contains sidelong pieces by British cellist Lucy Railton and Baltimore-based experimental artist Max Eilbacher. Much like the music on her 2018 debut, Paradise 94, Railtons Forma pushes the limits of electro-acoustic sound. The piece combines Railtons live cello with premixed arrangements on multichannel tape, including organ played by Kit Downes in Iceland and Serge synthesizer recorded at the GRM Studios. The piece generally doesnt get as harsh or violent as Paradise 94s most striking moments, but it still feels tense and foreboding. For much of the beginning, Railtons cello playing seems transformed and obscured among the cricket-like synths, glowing organs, and crackling static manipulations. Halfway through, her playing resembles the sounds produced by a disturbing but fascinating array of cave-dwelling creatures. The final section of the piece is sparse and entirely acoustic, turning away from the more phantasmagorical elements and facing stark reality in isolation. Max Eilbachers Metabolist Meter (Foster, Cottin, Caetani and a Fly) is a sort of surrealist audio drama about the death of a bug. Eilbachers work takes on a variety of forms, from modular synthesis and generative systems to found-sound collage, and hes informed by academic electronic composition as well as the free-for-all noise underground. In this piece, fluid synth textures melt and gradually take shape as phasing percussive patterns, then abruptly become shocked with noise like an insect flying into a bug zapper. Ka Bairds flute playing merges with Eilbachers electronics to create a creepy-crawly but playful sensation, and the amplified sounds of a struggling, aggressively buzzing fly are accompanied by French dialogue. For the remainder of the piece, the buzzing is scattered and stretched among the electronic waveforms, almost serving as a requiem for the unfortunate insect. ~ Paul Simpson