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Francisco López, "Hyper-Rainforest", "Yanayacu"
These first two installments of the Epoché Collection are a notable departure from the prolific Francisco López’s usual work, being that they are entirely untreated field recordings. Recording natural spaces is of course nothing new to him, as that has been an element of many of his compositions over the years. Even though he was essentially only a facilitator on these works; acting only on the selection of recordings and editing, the result still clearly shows his mark.
Both of these two self-released limited discs are based on recordings taken from various rain forests, but the overall sound and character of the two are quite different.Hyper-Rainforest is the more varied of the pair, constituting rainforest recordings over a 20-year period and across five continents, and was originally part of a massive sound installation.
Untreated field recordings, at worst, fall into the trap of being too sparse or simplistic, and are best relegated to the dollar store "relaxing sounds" bin.López, however, records them at their best.Hyper-Rainforest is anything but placid, capturing swarms of insects, frogs, and bird songs amidst roaring water and pouring rain.Recorded at a relatively loud level, the sounds of a waterfall or a rainstorm are as effectively harsh as the work of nearly any noise artist out there.
As loud as passages might be, however, they never overshadow the more delicate moments of these recordings.Subtle insect chirps and bird songs are allowed to be heard in the quieter segments, but the overall dynamics are constantly shifting.That is a huge asset of this recording:it never seems to stop or settle.Jumping from jungle to jungle via sharp, sometimes abrupt edits, it is the antithesis of mundane new age type nature recordings.
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Rather than the expansive single piece on Hyper-Rainforest, Yanayacu is split into smaller, thematically defined segments.Consisting of recordings exclusively from the Peruvian Amazon, the more specific focus results in a recording that does not have the same rapid flow, but still avoids the negative clichés of field recordings.Instead of quick, shifting moments, these are more open and expansive pieces that are allowed to settle in and work on a more microscopic scale.
Perhaps most startling here is the juxtaposition of extremely different recordings.The first piece is mostly expansive ambience and chirping birds, having an inviting feel to it.The second, however, is underscored by a frightening reverberated noise that is extremely unsettling.The third piece also features a similarly monstrous animal noise that is not at all obscured by the louder birds and noisy insects and leads to both tension and fascination.
For me, these two discs seem to have a connection to the world of harsh noise.Hyper-Rainforest reminded me of something such as the Incapacitants or Hijokaidan in its single, unbroken hour-long duration.There are far more dynamic moments as opposed to those two artists' unrelenting wall of noise approaches, but to me it conveyed a similar intensity, never becoming too sparse or open.On the other hand, Yanayacu, with its intentionally placed long passages of silence was akin to early Whitehouse, when long gaps of silence were intentionally placed between songs to magnify the louder moments.Again, López's recordings of the Amazon are not nearly as harsh or aggressive in nature, but these empty moments did make the captured recordings seem all the more forceful.The fact that these field recordings made that transition from natural sounds to sound art compositions as I listened to them shows just what a master López is at selecting and editing sounds, even when he is not taking the traditional role of composer
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