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Francisco López, "Obatalá-Ibofanga"
For the third installment of his all field recording based Epoch series, López presents material collected at somewhat more conventional sounding locations, at least for an American such as myself. Captured at various parks and nature preserves throughout Cuba and both the Southeast and Southwest of the United States, the sounds are no less fascinating than his rainforest-centric previous entries in this series.
Continuing with the previous releases in this series, Obatalá-Ibofanga is exclusively field recordings, without any processing or treatments performed:simply the editing and mixing performed by López.Even though he may not have had a direct hand in the creation of these sounds, he still shows his impeccable compositional aptitude when it comes to the sequencing and editing of the various recordings that he presents.
Chirping birds and noisy insects act as the most consistent recurring theme throughout this 18-minute piece, but it is in the different ways these recordings are sequenced and mixed that acts as the disc’s greatest asset.For the first ten or so minutes birds are the focus of the recording, and either through the occurrence of nature or subtle mixing by López, the intermingling calls take on a truly musical quality in terms of both rhythm and melody.The next segment is obviously a different location, but the musical quality of what preceded it is drained out, leaving a noisy, almost sharp and shrill passage of organic sounds that are not all that removed from his composed works.
These transitions keep Obatal√°-Ibofanga captivating, and the juxtapositions are consistent with Lopez's traditional material.His transitions from sustained buzzing roars that are obviously insect swarms (but could just as easily be a synthesizer or DSP output) into a wide open fields of hushed cricket chirps and back again are what sets this series off from any other traditional "nature" recordings.The changeovers are often dramatic and jarring, which keeps the sound from fading into the background.
The expansive body of work that Francisco López has produced is considered some of the greatest experimental electronic works, and speaks to his exceptional ability as an artist.This series stands out on its own, acting a sort of ancillary to his numerous Untitled works, but also functions as a more accessible gateway into his catalog.The dynamics of his compositions are present on Obatalá-Ibofanga and the previous releases, but by using the sounds of nature as his instruments, it takes on a different dimension. This direction is one that people put off by his harsher electronic works may find more engaging and easier to understand.Obatalá-Ibofanga is another jewel in his expansive discography.
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