B°TONG (B*TONG / B-TONG/ BTONG) - Un_b°tong

Format: mCDR-box

Label & Cat.Number: Attenuation Circuit Mini Series ACM 1007

Release Year: 2011

Note: 6 short pieces (rather studies) of extreme manipulation from unmusical sounds, mainly human voices -> like a daring from of audio poetry mixed with electroacoustic detailness, this presents new surrealistic paths for the great Swiss artist! Comes in mini DVD box on the excellent ATTENUATION CIRCUIT label from Augsburg, Germany

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €6.50

More Info

"B°tong’s second release on Attenuation Circuit is, as the title suggests, quite atypical for the dark ambient soundscapes the Swedish-Swiss artist is best known for. In six rather short tracks, B°tong explores the sonic possibilities of digital audio manipulation of several sound sources, mainly recorded voices used as sources of pure sound, not linguistic information. The results feel somewhat like an unlikely combination of lowercase electronica and Mille Plateaux-style cuts’n’glitches and updated audio poetry in the tradition of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Henri Chopin.

“Un_B°tong” opens up a new direction in the artist’s work while remaining true to the spirit of experimentation with non-musical sounds that has been informing cutting edge music for about a century now, including the original practitioners of “industrial” music that have been inspiring B°tong’s work. Those with ears tuned to today’s rather limited definition of the genre as “dark” music of some sort or other may find the intellectual playfulness of B°tong’s approach on this release too lighthearted, even humorous, considering titles like “Colourful, Comfortable, Weatherproof” or the tongue-in-cheek combination of biblical quotes about the devil with the “subliminal” message “B°tong isst heimlich” (“B°tong eats secretly”) almost hidden in the cover copy. For those interested in truly contemporary audio experiments, however, this crisp little outing has a lot to offer within the space of its 18 minutes." [label info]

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