The broad and distinctive esotericism of Zeno van den Broek, HIIIT, Gagi Petrovic & Machines’ Relatum features what sound like field recordings and found sounds merging into one fractured listening experience. Yet it’s not what it seems.
A convoluted and disorienting audio collage
The broad and distinctive esotericism of Zeno van den Broek, HIIIT, Gagi Petrovic & Machines’ Relatum features what sound like field recordings and found sounds merging into one fractured listening experience. Yet it’s not what it seems.
They’re actually works based on algorithms where robots and percussionists react to the machines. The music of MA(N|CHINE) is electronics, percussion (HIIIT, previously known as Slagwerk Den Haag) and robots (the high percussion clicks). “Movement one – System” veers between subtle electronics, micro-acoustic components, and a clanging non-rhythm that isn’t entirely clear until midway through. The next chapter, “Movement two – Mimicry,” features low-pitched bass tones extending well into left field. The background flutter is virtually undetectable, and there are similar clanging noises next to what sound like footsteps tapping in a distant corridor. “Movement three – Sync” takes a more detailing turn from previously identified non-musical forms, fusing elements of “Movement one” and “Movement two” into a convoluted and disorienting audio collage.
With the help of Dutch composers NOW, Buma Cultuur, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, and Ministerie van OCW, “From Voice To Pulse,” which closes with static noises and voices, is uniquely challenging (and challenging to absorb) without tuning into its core abstract center. The composition evolves into a partially algorithmic work for voice, played by a human, and percussion, played by custom robots. GPT-2 open-source artificial intelligence wrote the text and is performed by Gagi Petrovic. This AI was trained on Georges Perec’s Species of Spaces and Other Pieces and a number of spatial perception-related Wikipedia articles and is unlike anything we’ve heard recently. Relatum will take a few listens to consume; and if you believe you’ve done so, give it another go.
Relatum is available on Moving Furniture (Contemporary Series) September 13, 2024. [Bandcamp]
