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Luciernaga, "Collected Works 2008-2013
Joao Da Silva’s Luciernaga project has been active only a relatively short time thus far, with releases dating back to 2010, and obviously material here going back even further. This disc compiles selections from ultra limited cassettes, split releases, and unreleased work that stands out well in the often crowded field of ambient drone works. Nicely alternating between harshness and soft, gauzy textures, the result is a dynamic and cohesive collection of material.
Of the ten pieces collected, I felt myself latching on most quickly to the ones that featured more overtly perceptible instrumentation, or at least sounds that resemble conventional instruments.The spacey, reverberating guitar bathed in a tasteful sea of fuzz that cuts through the cavernous warehouse ambience of "If You See/The Pulse of Water (Reprise)" is a perfect example of this.A similar late appearance of distorted guitar also adds a lot to "Long Wave", offsetting the haunting melodic electronics that precede it.
Not so clear is the possible vintage organ of "Maquinaria" that is coated in tremolo to approximate a slow rhythmic pulse.It takes its time, but the slow burn approach builds the space around the sound up nicely, even if the evolution is subtle.More immediate is "Are Crawling," with a nasal, panning burst of electric sound that, once the layers are stripped away a bit, sounds like it could be the twang of a sitar.
Other pieces seem, at least on the surface, less obvious in their source.The rhythmic feel of "She Is Here, With Us" is structurally similar to "Maquinaria," but comprised mostly of heavy, booming electronic noises that, paired with the funereal pace, is moody to say the least.The shimmering noises and fuzzed out bursts of "Fuente" are part of a rather short piece, but the piece does accomplish what was intended quickly via its light and floaty sound.
That lighter feel appears again on "Something Witchy" but within a muted framework that works with a similar palette of sounds but results in a film-score like piece of audio noir.The long closing composition "Cadaveres" makes for the ideal climax to this collection.Mixing in the defining elements of the Luciernaga sound into a single work, it has a noisy guitar squall that is rather dissonant, but held back by a calm ambiance that balances everything out, while the latter bits bringing in some shrillness that keeps it nice and acerbic.
With his sparse discography, this disc makes for the perfect jumping in point to hear the work of Joao Da Silva.By all accounts it is just a tidying up of a mostly out of print back catalog, so it manages to not come across as an epilogue like these works often are for many artists.Instead it works as an excellent primer for what I hope to be many more new releases.
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