What would you get if you combined 10 of Italy’s most influential electronic musicians and put them under the care of Maurizio Bianchi? Well you would get Meerkat. This is their third release in the Between The Elements Quadrilogy. The first two being Nefelodhis (Clouds) and Erimos (desert). Songs are composed in groups of two or three, melding the ensemble together. And just who is in there? We have Adriano Zanni, Matteo Uggeri, Luca Sigurta, Luca Bergero, Davide Valecchi, Andrea Ferraris, Fabio Selvafiorita, Paolo Ippoliti, Laura Lovreglio and Andrea Marruti. Built on the theme of smoke (kapnos); the tunes within mix solid frequencies with liquid sounds. With a flock of people involved the thought would be that the music they create would be in cohesive and scattered. Not so with Meerkat, the basic theme mentioned above is held through- out the cd.

Keeping that in mind, all the tracks included have recordings of fire (crackling, smoldering, etc…) within each song giving continuity to the cd. Starting with “One”, the recordings of fire disappear into a whirlpool of sounds. Pitches are elevated, tones swirl and rush. The crackling and popping of fire in interspersed with static and ambient sounds of water. “Two” has a droning ambient of wind and fire burning. Recordings of conversations overlap giving it a confused sound. “Three” has a psychedelic keyboard played delicately, lending itself to illustrate the sight of smoke wafting gently into the air. A simple piece, yes, but the imagery it imparts is magical and mysterious. “Four” features a bass line droning along with the above mentioned field recordings, this flows directly into “Five”, the pitches gradually get louder giving us the feeling we are standing still as humanity speeds by us. In “Six” sounds scrape and move around us. The sound of fire is heard faintly underneath the scraping effects, presenting us with a truly eerie setting. “Seven” has a subtle gentle hum, ambient in its presentation. Pitches drone into a chiming rhythm. Static and guitars break the calm, but never divert the serene atmosphere.

As a total concept, the sounds and aura’s created stay true to the theme. With this much talent it would be hard not to. Each track is competently played, the compounds and effects of the subject (smoke), are heard in a subtle way. While the subject could have been heavy handed, here it is dealt with in a mystical and almost spiritual inclination. The members keep their continuity in the theme and each other without sacrificing any musical integrity.

http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20100112234340602

elettroacustica: un progetto ambizioso ben riuscito

Gli elementi hanno sempre esercitato una certa attrazione sui musicisti (pensate a esempi celebri come l’eponimo LP della Third Ear Band e “Two And Two” di Christina Kubisch e Fabrizio Plessi), sia per l’immaginario atavico che sono in grado di evocare e sia per l’aspetto esoterico che da tempi immemorabili si lega a tale immaginario, ma anche più semplicemente per i suoni che da esse scaturiscono e che hanno mosso la fantasia di innumerevoli compositori (pensate al sibilare dell’aria in movimento, al gorgogliare fluido dell’acqua, al crepitare del fuoco ed agli infiniti suoni rapportabili all’elemento ‘terra’). Non stupisce affatto, quindi, che un tipo curioso qual è Matteo Uggeri si sia imbarcato nella realizzazione di una quadrilogia “Between The Elements” concepita in stretta collaborazione con quel Maurizio Bianchi unanimemente riconosciuto come uno dei precursori dell’ambient di origine industrial e, conseguentemente, di sottogeneri quali l’isolazionismo e il dark-ambient. E non stupisce neppure, visto il proverbiale entusiasmo catalizzatore di Matteo, la risposta positiva di numerosi musicisti alla sua chiamata per la realizzazione di tale ambizioso progetto. Caso mai, quale particolarità a livello di concetto, v’è il fatto che in questo caso gli elementi non sono mai concepiti nella loro forma pura (aria, acqua, fuoco e terra) ma in foggia ibrida. [...vd. "Erimos" review]

Bianchi si fa da parte per il terzo capitolo che vede Hue e fhievel confluire in un collettivo chiamato Meerkat. In realtà più che di un collettivo si tratta di un ‘mercato’ al cui interno sono possibili vari assembramenti e interscambi. Il titolo (“Kapnos” vuol dire fumo) rappresenta ancora una stazione bastarda, quella che dal fuoco convoglia all’aria e, visto l’argomento ‘scottante’, la divisione in più tracce per un risultato complessivo più secco e corporeo appare pienamente azzeccata. Atmosfere più nervose e claustrofobiche, quindi, ottenute da alcune realtà ormai consolidate quali Logoplasm (Two) e il duo Fhievel / Sigurtà (Five) o comunque non proprio di primo pelo quali i tandem Marutti - Hue (Six) e Aal - Punck (Three). Ma, nonostante i singoli pezzi portino impresso il dna dei loro autori, l’impressione finale è comunque quella del progetto collettivo, unico e indivisibile (e molto più coerente di questi miei disordinati appunti). Non si tratta quindi di un ‘assembramento’ caotico, ma di un mercato nel quale non v’è disequilibrio in geometrie e colori, come se fosse disegnato da un unico pittore o progettato da un unico architetto. Segno che tutti protagonisti avevano ben chiare le finalità del progetto, vi hanno aderito e lo hanno sviluppato in miracolosa sintonia. E, infine, va anche detto che questo piccolo ‘mercato’ pare essere oggi il più accreditato erede di quella grande fiera che fu “Superfici Sonore”.
Attendiamo adesso il quarto ed ultimo episodio della serie (che dovrebbe intitolarsi “Pagetos”) con l’auspicio che i protagonisti possano concludere quest’avventura senza nessuna caduta di tono.

http://www.sands-zine.com/

The third disc in the Between the Element quadrilogy envisioned by Italian sound artists Matteo Uggeri (Hue, Sparkle in Grey), and Maurizio Bianchi (MB), Kapnos brings together ten of the leading Italian artists working in electronic sound design today. Hue may already be a familiar name, having contributed to the past two volumes in the series, as well as Luca Bergero (Fhievel), who contributed to the first volume. The other artists bring a variety of skills to the mixing-table, coming from various projects with different focuses. An Italian super-group (in the most niche way imaginable) making bizarre musique concrète (or should it be musica concreta?) may not sound like much, but to enthusiasts, Kapnos is a treat. These artists mold noise into a form of raw beauty. It’s not musical, at least not in the conventional sense, but is an art of noise, an ambient music in the most literal sense.

On Kapnos, certain elements or motifs are repeated throughout, granting a cohesion despite the fact that virtually no track on the album shares members with any other. Sometimes, expected samples are identified; crackling fire, a flame raging, but mostly it is in the process of creation that the spirit of Kapnos is realized. One artist may create a landscape of guitar and electronics, the material so to speak, while the collaborator will treat them, modulating and affecting, weaving in field recordings, until it is set  ablaze, the result being the smoke, difficult to grasp and quickly vanishing. The tracks of Kapnos present a surprising homogeneity in spite of the different attitudes of the artists, creating new unforeseen connections, working in pairs or in threesome per each track. They are without title, simply numbered One through Seven, which limits our ability to provide interpretation. I suspect this was done to increase the ephemeral quality, refusing to allow meaning to be grasped.

One’s instinct is to try to identify the source of the sound they perceive. Schaeffer addressed this very urge in his essay “Acousmatics,” arguing that sound has become disembodied in the age of recorded music. One needn’t separate the subjective and objective, our perception and the source, but instead we should just relate to the sound as it is being experienced. Meerkat sometimes use pitched sound and often use white noise or unpitched sound. Rather than organize their compositions traditionally, by meter, rhythm, melody and so on, they use ambient techniques, creating layers, controlling durations and resonance, and mapping out a less familiar architecture. It is futile to sit and listen, trying to imagine how these sounds were created, but rather inhale the frequencies and discover a new atmosphere without preconceptions of their creation.

“Between the Elements” implies a hybridization. A cloud is a mix of air and water, a desert a mix of earth and fire, and smoke of fire and air. Whereas Nefelodhis swirled and Erimos took pleasure in its bareness, Kapnos simply resists. Neither of the prior releases in the series embodied their concept in a predictable realization, and neither does this latest installment. Clichés and literal-minded mimesis would be too easily dismissed, so rather the compositions themselves seem as insubstantial and temporary as smoke, falling in between the solid closedness of earth and the destructive openness of fire. Its sister album Pagetos (or morning frost) will be out next year, completing the project. Kapnos is ethereal, opaque yet also purifying and I look forward to experiencing the mirror version next year.

http://www.thesilentballet.com/

June Top Ten

• Cluster, Grosses Wasser (Bureau B) CD
• Tim Feeney & Matt Samolis, Monument (Lil Discs) 3”CD
• Luc Ferrari, L’OEuvre Electronique (INA-GRM) 10 CD
• Jeff Gburek, Remote Provinces (Aural Terrains) CD
• Robert Hampson, Vectors (Touch) CD
• Grischa Lichtenberger, “Treibgut” (Raster-Noton) EP
• Stephan Mathieu & Taylor Deupree, Transcriptions (Spekk) CD
• Meerkat, Kapnos (AFE/Grey Sparkle/Ctrl+Alt+Canc) CD
• Various, Legends of Benin (Analog Africa) CD
• Various, Picking O’er the Bones (Mordant Music) CD

Meerkat is a loose confederation of young Italian experimental musicians and sound artists. On Kapnos, the third release in a proposed quadrilogy, the group, which has ten members (give or take), never play as a single unit. Instead each of the album’s seven pieces features a different subset of the larger ensemble. In spite of this, the pieces are very much cut from the same cloth, with each composed of similar basic ingredients: field recordings, guitar drones, the occasional synthesizer, and lots of subtle electronics. The title Kapnos is the Greek word for smoke and, appropriately, the music drifts and swirls in kind. It’s a lovely, meditative record, but with enough rough elements (mostly courtesy of some glorious location recordings) to give it a bit of an edge and keep things interesting.
Very nice indeed.

http://www.rarefrequency.com/2009/06/meerkat_kapnos.html

http://www.ilmucchio.it/fdm_content.php?sez=scelte&id=1212&id_riv=68

http://maeror3.livejournal.com/99532.html
http://www.radiodrone.ru/publ/3-1-0-400

Über eine besondere Gemeinschaftsarbeit!
Genre: Drone, Feldaufnahmen, Noise
Meerkat, ein Zusammenschluss junger italienischer Experimentalkünstler, der eine Tetralogie bzw. Quadrilogie mit dem Titel “Between The Elements” veröffentlicht, wovon mit “Kapnos” der dritte Teil über Afe Records, Grey Sparkle, Nighthawks Tapes & Ctrl+Alt+Canc das Licht der Welt erblickte, offenbart eine Klangkunst, welche eine futuristische Melange aus den Stilen Drone, Feldaufnahmen und Noise transportiert, die garantiert unterschiedlichste Meinungen (darüber) produziert, aber Geräuschfetischisten ein Highlight bietet.
Zum besseren Einblick in das Projekt Meerkat, hier die Auflistung aller daran beteiligter Akteure: Matteo Uggeri (Hue), Luca Bergero (Fhievel), Andrea Ferraris (Ics), Andrea Marutti (Afe Records, Amon, Never Known), Adriano Zanni (Punck), Fabio Selvafiorita, Laura Lovreglio + Paolo Ippoliti (Logoplasm), Luga Sigurtà & Davide Valecchi (Aal(Almost automatic landscapes)). Mit Meerkat (Erdmännchen) suchten sich die Italiener einen sehr passenden wie originellen Namen aus, da sie ebenfalls in zahlreicher Mannschaftsstärke auftreten.
Inhaltlich greift die “Heerschar” auf dem Schwesteralbum von “Pagetos” den Begriff “Kapnos” auf, der im Griechischen Rauch bedeutet, welcher verschiedenste toxische Partikel in Umlauf bringt, welche zum Tod führen können.
Musikalisch präsentieren die Protagonisten 7 Tondokumente auf “Kapnos”, die eine meditative Mischung aus Gitarrendrones, Feldaufnahmen/ Percussion & leichtem Noise offenbaren, welche in keiner Sekunde aufwühlt, sondern wie Rauch umgibt. Voller Leichtigkeit transportieren die Klanglandschaften die Thematik des Werkes, wodurch die geneigte Rezipientenschaft während des kompletten Hördurchgangs das Gefühl beschleicht, als würde sie in aufsteigenden Dämpfen bzw. Gasen stehen – Wahnsinn. Die zur Akzentuierung verwendeten Sprachsamples & Geräusche wie Percussion verleihen den einzelnen unbetitelten Tracks ihre persönlichen Noten, welche den Wiedererkennungswert der Publikation enorm steigern. Wer künstlerische Eigenständigkeit wünscht, sollte die Dame und Herren aus Italien antesten, welche sich gerade durch die Vermengung von Drones mit Feldaufnahmen von vielen anderen Interpreten absetzen.
“Kapnos” dürfte für Freunde extravaganter Töne mit Stringenz wie Strukturen ein einziger Anspieltipp sein, weshalb eine explizite Nennung entfällt.
Nachtrag: Meerkat ist eine Initiative von Maurizio Bianchi und Matteo Uggeri (Hue), welche sie 2006 ins Leben riefen, die sich zu einem richtigen Ensemble entwickelte und aufgrund der hohen Dichte von guten wie bekannten Musikern (im Untergrund) für Aufsehen sorgt.
Fazit: Meerkat legen mit “Kapnos” ein Opus auf, welches durch inhaltliche wie musikalische Geschlossenheit besticht und vornehmlich Individuen anspricht, die sich für meditative Drones mit experimentellem Charakter interessieren – meine absolute Empfehlung!

http://kulturterrorismus.de/rezensionen/meerkat-kapnos.html

Terzo volume di una quadrilogia sugli elementi naturali, “Kapnos” è sostanzialmente l’emanazione di un gruppo di musicisti che rappresenta al meglio la scena elettronica ed elettroacustica nazionale. In questo lavoro sono della partita Adriano Zanni, Matteo Uggeri, Luca Sigurtà, Luca Bergero, Davide Valecchi, Andrea Ferraris, Fabio Selvafiorita, Paolo Ippoliti, Laura Lovreglio e Andrea Marutti, mentre manca a questo giro Maurizio Bianchi, che pure era presente negli episodi precedenti, ma che qui firma comunque le note di copertina.

Nelle parole del non musicista Milanese, molto della natura del disco: “…The “Kapnos” adapts the primary condition of solid frequencies and liquid modulations, by improving details of ancient sonorities...”. Ed è proprio sul cortocircuito tra suoni moderni e suggestioni antiche che si regge la musica di “Kapnos”, costantemente sospesa in un limbo immacolato e a volte oscuro. Elettronica, passaggi ambientali, accenni di elettroacustica alla Ambiances Magnetiques convivono omogeneamente, così si va dalle suggestioni isolazioniste della sesta traccia (a cura di Marutti e Hue) e della terza (di Al e Punck), alle digressioni lustomordiane della quinta (di Fhievel e Luca Sicurtà), passando per i field recordings suggestivi della seconda (di Logoplasm). Il tutto senza scarti percettivi, come fosse un’opera unica.

A me ha ricordato  - per  suggestioni e attitudine dei musicisti, più che per sonorità – alcuni lavori della scena elletronica italiana degli anni 70. La qualità dell’album è altalenante, e non potrebbe essere altrimenti, tuttavia vi sono perle di assoluta bellezza che rendono l’ascolto piacevole oltre che suggestivo.

http://www.ondarock.it/recensioni/2009_meerkat.htm

Sunday, 16 August 2009
Uneasy Listening
Five suggestions for a serene end of August, provided that you don’t have a family (tolerant wives are accepted) or nervous neighbours.

DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE – Neunundvierzig Entgleisungen [...]
BIOSPHERE – Wireless [...]
GUIDO MÖBIUS – Gebirge [...]
KKNULL / JOHN WIESE – Mondo Paradoxa [...]
MEERKAT – Kapnos

A collective project involving several of the principal Italian operators in the area of post-dark-ambient-cum-natural-elements, a bandwagon that in this particular country has meant shelter for practically anybody who wakes up one morning thinking “If Vidna Obmana, Lustmord, Köner, Roach … put your additional hundred names here… can become famous with something like this, why not me?”. The participants in Kapnos (Greek for “smoke”) are Luca Bergero, Andrea Ferraris, Paolo Ippoliti, Laura Lovreglio, Andrea Marutti, Fabio Selvafiorita, Luca Sigurtà, Matteo Uggeri, Davide Valecchi and Adriano Zanni. I’ll gladly do without the semi-cryptic monikers, also a commonplace of sorts in this macrocosm: perhaps there’s a law preventing individuals from releasing droning material and signing it with their real name. To end with the list of negatives, the field recordings - although generally well realized and expertly positioned in the mix - mostly belong to the worn-out sphere. Is there someone, somewhere, who has NOT taped a rainstorm or sheer gurgling water yet? Is it still necessary to camouflage chatting people (among them, ironically, a Roman-accented fellow who talks of Glenn Branca: not bad for a potentially meditative piece) amidst cavernous rumbles and sublunary humming? It all smells so “Pink Floyd circa 1973”, not making much sense today. Having said that, at least three tracks in this disc are very good, helping to place it in the upper half of the regional average. And the winners are… “One”, “Six” and “Seven” (with “Five” almost at the same level). Honourable mention to Andrea Ferraris’ guitar and electronics, the latter supposedly at the core of the profoundly beautiful resonance heard throughout “Seven”. In a nutshell, this reviewer loves the quality of the drones significantly more than the environmental banality. And since I’m a nice guy, comments about MB’s “explanatory” sleeve notes will be spared.

http://temporaryfault.blogspot.com/2009/08/uneasy-listening.html

Idealmente parte integrante di una quadrilogia sugli elementi, Kapnos, che in lingua greca significa "fumo", è il terzo della serie e segue i cd Nefelodhis, di Sparkle in Grey e Maurizio Bianchi, ed Erimos, a nome MB, Hue e Fhievel. Meerkat è sostanzialmente un collettivo di musicisti formato da Adriano Zanni, Matteo Uggeri, Luca Sigurtà, Luca Bergero, Davide Valecchi, Andrea Ferraris, Fabio Selvafiorita, Paolo Ippoliti, Laura Lovreglio e Andrea Marutti (che oltre a rivestire il ruolo di musicista si occupa anche del mastering del disco). Maurizio Bianchi stavolta non è del giro, ma sue sono comunque le note di copertina, vero e proprio manifesto programmatico del contenuto del cd. I sette brani presenti in Kapnos, concettualmente molto simili ed omogenei, sono sostanzialmente delle concise suite ambientali della lunghezza standardizzata di poco più di sei minuti, costruite su sovrapposizioni di drone, field recordings e manipolazioni elettroniche. A dispetto delle premesse devo dire che la fruizione del disco non si presenta affatto pesante, anzi, le melodie, benché lunghe, dilatate e minimali, sono spesso ben presenti. La scelta dei suoni da parte dei musicisti pare infatti prediligere frequenze calde e non invadenti, suoni granulari e rotondi, talvolta carichi di solennità, e raramente si sconfina verso qualcosa di più pesante, come nel caso di Six, di Andrea Marutti e Hue, brano vicino per attitudine a certo dark ambient, forse il passaggio più inquietante e oscuro del progetto. Non avendo avuto modo di sentire Nefelodhis ed Erimos, i capitoli precedenti della quadrilogia, non posso sbilanciarmi in confronti, anche se immagino che la sostanza sia la stessa, e neppure giudicare l’opera nel suo complesso, essendo stata pensata come una quadrilogia. Quello che posso dire è che di per sé Kapnos è un disco ambient particolarmente riuscito, capace di provocare un misto di sensazioni nella testa di chi ascolta, dalla narcosi, all’inquietudine, al rilassamento più completo. E se non per questi, per quali altri motivi si dovrebbe ascoltare ambient?

http://www.sodapop.it/rbrth/content/view/632/9/

Roberto Mandolini,

Webcast & Radio Show

Click here to stream or right-click to download
("Post-Pop Dissonant Abstraction" with music selections by M.)
Flint Glass - Connexion Bizarre Webcast identifier
[exclusive]
Millimetric- Manic Depression
[Expériences Modernes - M-tronic]
Low Techncians - Energy Inside
[Riga - Diffusion Records]
Emmon - Urban Diseases
[Closet Wanderings - Wonderland Records]
And One - Blue Monday (Live 2008)
[Bodypop 1 1/2 - Out Of Line]
CTRL - Lost In Static
[Lost In Static - Diffusion Records]
Client - Blackheart
[Command - Out Of Line]
Alice In Videoland - Who's That Boy?
[She's A Machine - Artoffact]
Meerkat - Two
[Kapnos - Afe Records]
^|SiCk0|^ - (
[Sickness Volume Three - Intolerance Records]
Kezzardrix - Smoker's Delight
[V/A - Electr-Ohm Compilation 2 - Electr-Ohm]
v4w.enko - Opus28
[Harmonic Ratio - Kvitnu]
Access To Arasaka - 400 Bloc Overground
[V/A - Emerging Organisms Vol.2 - Tympanik Audio]
Synth-Etik - Cavina
[V/A - 2009 Hands - Hands Productions]

Listen to the Webcast

http://connexionbizarre.blogspot.com/

Meerkat is the name of a parallel project formed by some of the great artisans of current experimental electronic music (Luca BERGERO, Matteo UGGERI, Luca SIGURTA, Andrea FERRARIS, Andrea MARUTTI, Paolo IPPOLITI, Laura LOVREGLIO, Fabio SELVAFIORITA, Adriano ZANNI and Davide VALECCHI). The concept of “Kapnos” is inspired by Maurizio BIANCHI, Hue (Matteo UGGERI) and the greek researcher Spyros Abatielos. It’s an allegorical term taken from the Greek terminology and means “smoke” something related to combustion, chemical reactions and living between air and fire. This concept resonates particularly well with the sound materials provided in this effort: the stylistic register destined for instrumental micromal-ambient sounds immediately conceal some mystical meaning conveyed through natural symbols. “Kapnos” features a vast array of field recordings, weird concrete noises, precarious improvisations, electronic treatments, trancey-inspired drone buzz and other absorbing loops. It can be understood as a musical hermetic allegory of the cosmos, a private contemplative experience about sounds and silence that precede our being (language) and which are consequently related to the harmony of the spheres. This is an atmospheric album in the most uncompromising sense of the term. Another dimension to micro-tonal spacious electronic music.

http://www.progarchives.com/