@cAb OVO

Ab OVO

CrĂłnica 085~2014 download

Release date: 6 January 2014

Tracklist

  1. 98 (7:43)
  2. 99 (6:24)
  3. 100 (21:50)
  4. 101 (8:13)
  5. 102 (16:10)
  6. 103 (5:07)

The man has fallen. The skull opens. Time expands.
What is left of the the memory fades away on the floor. He has just lost the notion of future, only the past and his automatisms remain.
He was an actor, without the basis of theatre – a puppeteer?

His life is nothing more than the ruins of memory, and it is fragmented, divided in 4 characters. In the moments when everything is constructed and reconstructed as easily, the borders between worlds become even more permeable. The space of the stage is the inner space inhabited by the 4 characters coming from the unconscious, but captured in the world of stage acting.

(from the notes to OVO)

@c’s “Ab OVO” stems from their work for the soundtrack of OVO, a play by the puppet theater of Porto, developed in late 2011 and early 2012. Starting from an original idea by Eric de Sarria, OVO was created cooperatively during a series of rehearsals that involved all the participants in the play — actors, puppeteers, musicians and other creators — and premiered on February 10, 2012 at the São Bento da Vitória Monastery. The musical outcome of this process were 19 recorded compositions that constituted a majority of the play’s sound.

“Ab OVO” results from the realization that a music so tailored to a particular context could not be easily detached from it. When considering how to publish this work and what it would become without the stage, actors, puppets and dramaturgy, Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais felt the need to rework all the pieces, opting for revisiting parts of the original soundtrack and for composing a series of six new pieces that are now presented in this CD.

The end result, although remaining close to the play’s soundtrack, is an album that chiefly preserves traces of memories from the play and expands its creation process, thus rereading, reinterpreting and rediscovering OVO.

OVO was created by Edgard Fernandes, Eric de Sarria, Isabel Barros, Rui Queiroz de Matos, Sara Henriques and Shirley Resende, with puppets and scenic objects by Rui Pedro Rodrigues and Filipe Garcia, video by Albert Coma and costumes by Eugenia Piemontese. Photos by João Tuna © Tuna TNSJ.

Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela work together as @c since 2000, developing a regular musical collaboration and joining forces with the Austrian artist Lia in audiovisual work.

Their work is developed from three complimentary approaches to sound art and digital music: procedural composition, concrète sound and improvisation. Over the years they have been developing complex and structured compositions, with one foot in the fields of experimental, contemporary sound art and the other in live performance. If on one hand their compositions are usually built around strong structural foundations, it’s also common that multiple cells of sound are freed from these structures when integrated into the work, developing elaborate strategies of deconstruction.

Improvisation, either in dialogue or discussion, is central to @c’s performances, as is the will to create open compositions and to nurture ongoing processes that digitally amplify sound realities.

Pedro Tudela is an artist and a musician. He teaches at the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto (FBAUP).

Miguel Carvalhais is a designer and musician. He teaches at the Design Department of FBAUP.

Credits

Press release

Reviews