Stephan Mathieu & David MaranhaStrings

Strings Strings

CrĂłnica 064~2012 12" vinyl

12" vinyl sold out

Release date: 9 February 2012

Tracklist

  1. Strings (29:20)

Strings documents the long awaited first encounter of David Maranha and Stephan Mathieu, taking place in the Tennis Court of the Parque de Serralves, in Porto, on a sun-drenched yet gusty late-afternoon in July 2011. Having discussed in advance which instruments, tuning and notes to use, the piece was accomplished as an improvisation on the violin, shruti-box and virginals, reflecting both players love for classic minimalism, but also their ability to transform this language and make it their own. The acoustic instruments were amplified through a quadrophonic system to captivating volume, that nevertheless allowed environmental sounds to permeate.

The complete 30 minutes performance of Strings is now published in a limited and numbered edition of 300 single-sided 12” records, pressed on white audiophile vinyl, with sleeves featuring a silkscreen print by Pedro Tudela.

Stephan Mathieu (b. 1967) is a self taught composer and performer of his own music, working in the fields of electroacoustics and abstract digitala. His sound is largely based on early instruments, environmental sound and obsolete media, which are recorded and transformed by means of experimental microphony, re-editing techniques and software processes involving spectral analysis and convolution; it has been compared to the landscape paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, the work of Colorfield artists Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly.

During the last decade Stephan’s music has been released on 30 CDs and vinyl records. Apart from refining his solo work he currently collaborates with Sylvain Chauveau, Robert Hampson/Main, Taylor Deupree, Jozef van Wissem, Caro Mikalef and David Sylvian in live and studio projects.

Since 1992 he performed his music live in solo shows and on festivals all over Europe, Scandinavia, North and South America and created various audio installations for galleries and museums, a glass-blowing factory, a 17th century garden, Berlin Mitte, a 19th century steel plant, parks, an arrangement of 30 Peugeots, a late antique throne hall and many other unique sites.

“I’m a collector of 78rpm records from the 1910s and 20s, the era of acoustic and early electronic audio recording. I love the way they transport sound.”

David Maranha was born in Figueira da Foz in 1969.

In 1986 he started to develop his work as a musician, both solo as with several bands. In 1989, with André Maranha, António Forte and Bernardo Devlin, he created “osso exótico”, a group that went through several formations and is currently composed by André Maranha, David Maranha, Francisco Tropa, Manuel Mota and Patrícia Machás. David has also collaborated in the projects “Organ Eye” with Patricia Machás, Torben Tilly and Jasmine Guffond; “Bowline” with Francesco Dillon; “Curia” with Manuel Mota, Margarida Garcia and Afonso Simões; and “Dru” with Manuel Mota and Riccardo Wanke.

David also collaborated with many musicians, such as Z’EV, Emmanuel Holterbach, Helena Espvall, Phill Niblock, Chris Corsano, Jochen Arbeit, Minit, David Daniell, Arnold Dreyblatt, Richard youngs, Jacob Kirkegaard, Carla Bozulich, Chris Cutler, Werner Durand, Robert Rutman, Ben Frost, Helge Sten, etc.

In parallel he works as an architect since 1993, creating public buildings as museums, schools, senior residences and cemeteries.

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