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Reviews
Luigi Archetti / Bo Wiget
Low Tide Digitals II
Rune Grammofon RCD 2046
The WIRE
Issue 257 / July 2005
This second collection of low-tide digitals from Swiss guitarist Archetti
and cellist Bo Wiget, both wielding electronics, takes us even lower into
the underground of drone. Low Tide Digitals II. diesn’t just hark
back to the electronics works of Stockhausen and Cage, but reaches beyond
to the 19120s and the Futurists, particularly the mechanical intonarumori
instruments of Luigi Russolo and his fellow Futurist composers –
although, as in the case of Russolo, I would say this would be Futurism
verging on dada, and free of the fascist associations of mainstreamFuturism.
Some of this stuff you could hear by just picking your phone up and letting
the dial tone go dead.
So far, so Fontana Mix, but there is more to Low Tide Digitals than mere
historical reference. Bridging La Monte Young and Sonic Youth, and some
more recondite sources besides, Archetti and Wiget’s work ia an
almost scientific exploration of low Hertz noise, but pitched at a poetic
level. Sometimes, it can even sound like Brian Eno i a particulary bad
mood. But rarely does it assume the form of song.
Rarely too, however, does it resemble that ghastly North American drive-in
minimalism dubbed „Dark Ambient“. Archetti and Wiget are pursuing
their own extremist aesthetic, which I would compare to classic AMM. Play
loud. Or, then again, very quietly.
By John Gill
TAGES ANZEIGER / Kultur
Freitag, 1. Juli 2005
Sehnsucht dröhnt
Gitarre, Cello, Elektronik: Luigi Archetti und Bo Wiget legen ihre zweite
CD vor.
Unbemerkt schiebt sich die Rhythmik von Wasserrauschen in den Vordergrund,
im Halbschlaf entfaltet ein anfahrender Güterzug orchestrale Wucht.
Es sind Hörerlebnisse, bei denen das Geräusch zur Musik verschwimmt.
Der Gitarrist Luigi Archetti und der Cellospieler Bo Wiget wandern auf
der Suche nach Berührungspunkten mit der Welt der Geräusche
an die Ränder der Musik.
Beide sind bekannte Musiker in der Zürcher Improvisationsszene, daneben
verkabeln sie für Theaterproduktionen und Multimediakunst ihre Instrumente
mit Elektronik. Auf ihrer zweiten CD als Duo führen sie mit zwölf
Miniaturen in ein seltsames Diesseits zwischen klassischer Avantgarde
und elektronischem Noise, Jazz und experimenteller Rockmusik. Diesen Weg
haben einige schon beschritten, mit mächtig viel Drogen, grossen
Konzepten oder beidem. Archetti und Wiget gehen ihn nüchtern, aber
mit radikaler Hingabe.
Ihre Musik kreist um zentrumslose „drones“, um Variationen
des Dröhnens, in den tiefsten Bassfrequenzen in den Weiten eines
abstrakten Klangraums ausfransen. Unaufdringlich und langsam geschieht
das, aber zwingend. Dabei durchkreuzen Archetti und Wiget die Erhabenheit
ihrer akustischen Gebäude öfter mit instrumentalen Dialogfetzen.
Aus der Niemandsmusik tauchen Melodielinien auf, die sich sanft in einer
unbekannten Sprache unterhalten. Bei dieser melancholischen Rede und Widerrede
von Cello und Gitarre erhält der Klang eine körperlich erfahrbare
Materialität. Indem er gleichzeitig auf Referenzen verzichtet und
die Hand zu Assoziationen reicht, verweist der Sound auf das Zuhören
selbst, und für einen Moment liegt in diesem Zuhören kein Gegensatz
mehr zwischen abwesender Entrückung und konzentrierter Aufmerksamkeit.
Mischa Suter
www.aftenposten.no
Juni 2005
Lekent alvor
Her er fortsettelsen av "Low Tide Digitals" som kom i 2001,
og den svekker ikke interessen for utøverne.
Kontrastene mellom dyptloddende bass og insisterende cello har sterkt
preg av egenart i denne sveitsiske duoens elektroakustiske utlegninger
på første spor, "Stück 12".
Archetti og Wiget fremmer en mørk menneskelighet med sine underfundige,
dystre og spennende lydbilder.
Musikken er visstnok improvisert, men den fremstår som både
gjennomarbeidet og reflektert. Den akustiske gitaren beveger seg vekk
fra tradisjonell europeisk impro, i et sant forsøk på å
finne nye spor, og det er leken som bærer alvoret frem i musikken.
Rammene er kjente, men innholdet byr på en variasjon og en vinkling
som løfter duoen ut av avantgardistisk mainstream.
"Low Tide Digitals II" er en utgivelse med høy flamme
og historisk forankring, i fremadrettet sig.
By: Arild Andersen
www.ear-rational.com
"Low Tide Digitals II is the sequel to this non-Norwegian duo's acclaimed
2001 debut album of the same name (RCD 2019). As with the debut, this
is an extremely fine-tuned mix of acoustic instruments and electronic
elements. An album of sensitive, electronically-tinged free improvising,
it's the work of two Swiss based musicians, guitarist Luigi Archetti and
cellist Bo Wiget. Archetti was born in Brescia, Italy, in 1955, but has
been a resident of Zurich for more than 30 years. He's a multi-media artist,
well-known for his work as both a painter and as a musician (he has received
many awards for his paintings, drawings, objects, and videos which have
been displayed in exhibitions, galleries and museums around the globe).
Active in both free improvisation and experimental rock since the late
1970s, Archetti joined vintage German psychedelic band Guru Guru (one
of the groups that has been an influence on latter-day ambient music,
also in the Far North) in 1990 and he has since appeared on three new
albums with them as well as on the live triple album Guru Guru: 30 Jahre
Live issued in 1999. He has played too with numerous exponents of improvised
music including Urs Voerkel, Ellen Christi, Magikami Koichi and many others.
Bo Wiget was born in Wattwil, Switzerland in 1971 and studied classical
cello in Austria at the Feldkirch Academy. At the age of 16 he launched
a rock band called the Dying Hedgehog, in which he was singer and banjo
player as well as cellist. It was the first of a series of unfortunately-named
groups which would also include the late 90s ensemble, Spot The Loony.
Over the last decade he has worked with numerous improvisers including
legendary Swiss free saxophonist Werner Lüdi, Czech singer/violinist
Iva Bittova, and Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto."
LE COURRIER
.......c’est un duo d’une rare finesse qui prendra le relais.
Association électroacoustique entre le guitariste italien Luigi
Archetti et le viloncelliste suisse Bo Wiget, flanqués d’un
dispositif nemérique, Low Tide Digitals compose un panorama de
crépitements microélectroniques, de grondements ondoyants
et de sons improvisés sur instruments acoustiques. Par l’entremise
de l?excellent label norvégien Rune Grammofon – Deathprod.
Supersilent. Maja Ratke – vient de paraitre l’album Low Tide
Digitals II, second jette de cette musique ambient inquiète, tortueuse,
mais aussi émouvant.
RMR
WOCHENZEITUNG / WOZ
Nr. 24 / 16. Juni 2005
......vor einigen Wochen nun ist „Low Tide
Digitals II“ erschienen und knüpft mit „Stück 12“
bis „Stück 23“ an den feingliedrigen Erstling an. Sanft
gesponnene Klangfragmente verdichten sich zu Landschaften in kargem Licht,
monochrom und ohne Pathos werden sie zu zarten Gemälden, wehen so
der aufgehenden Sonne entgegen. Farbe wird spärlich hingetupft, nicht
aufgetragen und schafft so einen ungewohnten Zeithorizont in dem sich
einige langsame digitale Amphibien bewegen.
ibo
www.lostatsea.netII
June 2005
The mood of these twelve improvised compositions for cello, guitar and
electronics is that of seafloor music - alive with clicks and pings, ominous
hull knocks and so many pounds of pressure per square inch that your eardrums
buckle under the weight. Successive compositions gather together a series
of luminous, slow motion and exquisitely fraught pieces which combine
sussurating glitches, plangent chimes, tidal sweeps of digital texture
and the gentle quiver of cello and guitar into clear, iridescent coherence.
As objective observations, they are compelling, what with all of their
percolating details and scrabbling textures; crafting contrast, Wiget
and Archetti contextualize these sounds next to profoundly ugly electric
field disturbances, painfully loud digital explosions and gut-churning
low-end frequencies.
The first track, noted as “Stuck 12”, owns to the fact that
these works are meant to continue where the previous album of the same
name left off. Like a swirled scar, raw and ever-changing, both works
are beautifully rendered smears of fragmented sound; it is a trait which
situates the events of the albums in a twilight neverland mapped by margin
walkers such as Taku Sugimoto and Kaffe Matthews. This second effort,
however, bears movements more pronounced and articulate, while electronics
and organic instruments engage in a communal project.
On the majority of pieces, Wiget melts the source material into a fluttering
spray of sine waves that are all but beatless, displaying his characteristic
sensibility for miniscule variations in tone. Archetti, meanwhile, whittles
material down into a splintered rhythm section, snagging the melodic midrange
on its heart-emblazoned sleeve. Now and again, one happens across pieces
more straightforward in progression - pieces in which blasts of noise
are relatively tempered, while shrill siren gurgles and astringent chords
are nursed by someone squeezing lemony textures out of a guitar and fashioning
quiet beats from raindrops. That being said, such pieces still rest deep
inside the gutted innards and blackened lungs of forms that usually show
a rosier face to the world.
Other pieces find quieter dwellings: on “Stuck 21”, for instance,
every tickle of the guitar rings out as clearly as a bird whistling at
night. These pieces sustain a multitude of moods in their flexible forms.
At once serene and almost mystical, the next moment one is faced with
coarse scrapings and dark drones oozing with the consistency of cold black
mud. As the work continues, compositions become shrouded in dread, a sense
heightened by a greater reliance upon minimalist techniques.
The album crests with “Stuck 22”, in which a whining cello
winds away from the screeching electronics and pours out a distressed,
stirring lament. On account of this track’s lucid emotion, one wishes
that the cello might have been afforded more of its own space, but most
likely its distinguished color owes to having been previously tied up
for so long. Throughout some forty-four minutes, this effort establishes
that human emotion can remain quite distinct in quite abstract settings.
For this reason, Low Tide Digitals II is made radiant with wraiths of
electronic tone, drug-slurred cello and rustic harmonies that twine like
smoke.
Reviewed by Max Schaefer
www.almostcool.org
Luigi Archetti and Bo Wiget are two Switzerland-based musicians who have
been active in both the free improv and experimental rock genres for almost
four decades when their backgrounds are added together. In addition to
his work in music, Archetti is also a multimedia artist and painter, and
his visual arts side definitely comes across in this album of improvised
album that mixes guitar, cello, and electronics. The release is a follow-up
to their release of the same title from back in 2001, and it continues
down the same stark path.
On the release, twelve tracks run almost forty-five minutes in length,
and despite some moments where they simply let the feedback drone on for
far too long, Low Tide Digitals II is a subtle, slow burn of an album
that has one of the more unique tonal palettes that I've heard in some
time. The release opens with "Stück 12" (continuing where
their first release left off) and the track opens with some warm cello
strains before a rumbling low-end pulses into the background slowly as
backwards loops of the cello are layered to fill in the chasm of mid-range.
"Stück 13" is just as dramatic, dropping sub-bass bombs
as filtered cello strokes paint a soft opening before dissolving into
a clicky, buzzing second-half.
At times, the duo finds an almost blissful ground with their experimentation,
as "Stück 16" mingles warm bass guitar strums with subtle
gurgling electronics for something that sounds like Tortoise on a massive
amount of narcotics while "Stück 21" drops sticky and stuttering
guitar notes onto one another over a low guttural tone for something that
sounds like what you might get if you crossed ultra-low Gregorian chants
with a broken windchime made from an old guitar. "Stück 17"
drops more deep bass hits with backwards swirls of cello and strummed
guitar bits for something dynamic and delicate at the same
Elsewhere, the duo seems to lose focus in places and simply get bogged
down in a digital morass. "Stück 20" gurgles and groans
without going much of anywhere while "Stück 14" spits out
shards of digital noise and squeals away with waves of feedback while
more bowel-rumbling tones churn away underneath. If you're a fan of improvised
electronic soundscapes, you'll probably find lots to enjoy here, but I
find myself yearning for something a little bit more when listening to
Low Tide Digitals II.
http://rep.no.sapo.pt/criticas_novas.htm
Juli 2005
Sequela do álbum saído em 2001, “Low Tide Digitals
II” pode ter como principais características, de novo, a
improvisação e a combinação de instrumentos
acústicos e eléctricos (violoncelo, guitarras) com a electrónica
digital, mas pouco tem a ver com a fragilidade e a suave beleza daquele
primeiro trabalho da dupla formada por Luigi Archetti e Bo Wiget. Se antes
as flores estavam em botão, agora abriram e desvendam a cor das
suas pétalas em toda a plenitude. Entre a “ambient music”,
o experimentalismo e a electroacústica “culta”, o que
ouvimos nesta inspirada abordagem do melhor de dois mundos, o orgânico
e o mecânico, como referiu a “Wire” a propósito
do primeiro “Low Tide Digitals”, chega a ser melhor do que
o já excelente seu antecessor. De Eno a Stockhausen, com Deathprod
de permeio, voltam os “drones” e a congregação
de “loops”, mas se antes notávamos neste projecto uma
certa dimensão “lounge”, agora tudo é mais interventivo
e actuante, chegando inclusive a ter um volume mais elevado e um maior
recorte sonoro. Curiosamente, este segundo opus é também
menos sombrio, denotando uma vivacidade que já é muito mais
solar, em contraste com o sombrio estado de espírito da electrónica
dominante. As personalidades e os percursos de ambos os músicos
estão bem vincadas neste exaltante disco. Igualmente um artista
plástico de renome, Archetti passou pela última configuração
do grupo psicadélico germânico Guru Guru e o seu CV inclui
parcerias com alguns grandes nomes da improvisação livre,
de Werner Ludi a Taku Sugimoto, tendo tocado também com luminárias
do “krautrock” como Dieter Moebius (Cluster), Michael Karoli
e Damo Suzuki (Can). Com formação clássica, mas uma
confessada propensão para a “música alta e eléctrica”,
Wiget dedica-se de corpo e alma à adulteração do
rock e ao seu cruzamento com as técnicas e a estética da
música improvisada, utilizando as designações de
“free-rock” e “noisecoretrash” para classificar
o que faz. Este lado rock dos dois suíços (Archetti nasceu
em Itália, mas vive no país dos relógios e dos chocolates
desde os 10 anos de idade) está agora mais em evidência.
Não se trata de rock, bem entendido, mas este sobrevive nas paisagens
abstractas criadas pelo duo.
www.sefronia.com
Encore une nouvelle parution du label norvégien Rune Grammofon,
encore de l'ambient improvisé, et encore une surprise. "Low
tide digitals" est le fruit d'un duo atypique par sa nationalité
(ils ne sont pas norvégiens mais italien et suisse) et ses instruments
: une guitare et un violoncelle. Les sonorités sont souvent masquées
par la réverbération et d'autres effets mais, grâce
aux techniques employées, on perçoit l’âme acoustique
des instruments. Souvent, une boucle est lancée, comme une interrogation
monomaniaque rabâchant les mêmes sons bancals et décalés.
Là, les deux musiciens lancent leurs improvisations discrètes,
presque paresseuses tant elles sont légères. A l'inverse
de Supersilent où le beau n'est pas recherché, Luigi Archetti
et Bo Wiget semblent plus avides d'esthétisme que d'expérimentation
folle. C'est ce qui donne sa particularité à "Low tide
digitals" : les morceaux sont improvisés mais sont courts,
et ils passent librement d'un style à un autre sans laisser de
place à un élément fédérateur autre
que l'ambiance étuvée qui nimbe l'album. On est donc loin
d'un discours logique, c'est simplement une rencontre musicale qui nous
est donnée, pure car sous ses multiples facettes. Toutes n'ont
pas le même éclat, mais il existe des moments privilégiés
où la trance ("Stuck 5") ou la stase ("Stuck 1")
touchent précisément le point sensible. Espéreront
qu'une seconde rencontre permette au deux musiciens d'aller au plus profond
de leur quête.
Frédéric Joussemet © Sefronia 16.10.2001
www.dustedmagazine.com
Dusted Reviews
Review date: Sep. 11, 2005
Reenacting a Big Bang of sorts, Archetti and Wiget’s second installment
of Low Tide Digitals begins with a series of cello tones being sucked
backward into the field of a celestial drone. From this prelude emerges
a series of interlocking barren spaces – if not really a bang, at
least a dispersal of sound across a constantly expanding universe.
The listener moves through this universe without the aid of a shuttle.
In fact, the journey is more akin to driving a golf cart down the highway
in order to catch the distinct quality of every foot of paved ground.
Archetti and Wiget are trustworthy chauffeurs. Currently based in Switzerland,
Archetti is a guitarist and multimedia artist best known for his involvement
with Guru Guru in the 1970s, while Wiget is a cellist who has worked with
a number of renowned jazz and electronic improvisers over the last decade.
On the surface, LTDII is fairly simple, consisting mainly of cello and
guitar processed by a computer, augmented by carefully deployed synthetic
sounds. For much of the record little is happening – a spacious
emptiness predominates. Archetti and Wiget take full advantage of the
stark canvas. On “Stück 14,” a dim low-end tone emerges
periodically, skewered by the flittering high-end tones of a disemboweled
bagpipe. Silence interjects for a few moments only to be overtaken by
a glimmer of distorted guitar arpeggios that inch forward like cracked
sirens. On the second piece, “Stück 13,” the swooning
of a pitch-shifted cello is enough to initiate a memorable drama. The
sounds are at once captivating and elusive, graven images flashing intermittently
across every surface of a blackened theater.
Like Brian Eno’s Apollo, a soundtrack to visuals of NASA’s
missions to the moon of the same name, LTDII maps a remarkable environment.
But unlike Eno’s work, which tends to proffer spaces stretching
into infinity without discernible differentiation – a road we can
all follow forever – Archetti and Wiget mark each passing moment
with sounds that are as singular and diverse as the landscape of the moon
itself, while maintaining that lunar hue.
Rather than a soundtrack for a collective (national) dream, LTDII is procession
of sound images, the half-formed recollections of events that shape our
own landscape, as well as the belated imagining of them: precisely deployed
hums and hisses, ghostly radio frequencies and elegiac organ chords blur
the line between the moon landing and its subsequent TV memory, while
pristine low-frequency cannonballs and distended masses of dirty electric
guitar further roil the slideshow.
By Alexander Provan
www.gaz-eta.vivo.pl
It's very rare to see musicians from outside of Norway make a record for
Rune Grammofon. The people running the Norwegian label were so thrilled
about this Swiss duo's first release "Low Tide Digitals"; they
decided to release the follow up as well. The duo - made up of Luigi Archetti
on guitar and electronics and Bo Wiget on cello and electronics - are
affected by just about every category of musical thought in the book.
Nothing is foreign to them - from ramblings of laptop generated sounds,
to the purity of well-recorded instruments, to ambient landscapes and
finally to composed walls of sound. It's all fair game for the duo, which
is a refreshing change from artists too worried about occupying other
people's musical mentalities to actually do something new. The last few
numbers are reminiscent of Terry Riley. The same thick drone-like quality
about them ensures they stick in your head for a long, long time. Drones
that escape from the speakers are highly addictive. Even the noisier passages
- such as "Stuck 15" - are enjoyable and not once do they become
intrusive or blatantly anarchic. You'll want to revisit them time and
again.
Tom Sekowski
JAZZ `N`MORE
Schweizer Jazz Magazin / Nr. 5 / Sept-Okt 2005
Der Gitarrist und Electronic-Spieler Archetti und sein Partner Bo Wiget
an Cello und Electronics kreiren keine riesigen Bögen mit kaum veränderten
Klangereignissen, die an die Aufnahmebereitschaft der Hörer oft hohe
Ansprüche stellen. Ihre Ton- und Noise-Kompositionen sind demgegenüber
dynamischer, mit überschaubaren Motiven, Strukturen, Phrasen, also
keine Meditationsläufe, sondern Kurzgeschichten, sich immer in Bewegung
befindliche Abläufe, Schichtungen, Netze, wie kleine Präludien,
Menuette, Tänzchen, die durch Zeiten, Räume, Stimmungen, Frequenzen
wandern. Jede der 12 Short Stories sind sich mehr oder weniger vom Originalklang
der Instrumente entfernende Exkursionen, die eine eigene Geschichte erzählen.
Johannes Anders |
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