m o r t   a u x   v a c h e s Since the late '80s, having spent time in the avant-noise project Gum, Australian sound artist Philip Samartzis has been exploring the technological residue that most sound engineers spend lifetimes trying to eliminate. Not surprisingly, indeterminant buzzings, electrical disturbances, crossed wire interference, tape hiss, and the surface noise of vinyl are the current source materials for Samartzis' electro-acoustic compositions. While there have been plenty of examples involving the tactility of technological residue with as many conceptual agendas (e.g. Loren Chasse's "Hedge Of Nerves," C.M. von Hausswolff's "An Operation of Spirit Communication," Christian Marclay's "Record Without A Cover," etc.), Samartzis has developed a unique signature that favors a clincally precise compositional technique that is typically affiliated with the Raster-Noton and 12K camps of electronic music. However, within those tightly controlled sets of sound, Samartzis allows for all of the haptic blemishes and residual sounds to continue unchecked by any controlling mechanisms. Recorded as part of Staalplaat's stellar "Mort Aux Vaches" series of radio broadcasts for VPRO radio, these three lengthy pieces may be Samartzis' best work to date.
				download Variable Resistance.mp3 (2.3mb)
		While many of the sounds (i.e. miniature clatterings, run-out groove vinyl crackle, and irritable strains of gossamer feedback) have been recycled from previous recordings, Samartzis has greatly improved upon the contextualization of those sounds, providing an open-ended arena for a number of phenomenological events and metaphoric disconnects. While maintaining the same packaging principles as all of the earlier "Mort Aux Vache" releases with a single tri-folded piece of paper holding the cd in place with a brass fastener, the paper in question is a beautiful iridescent, 'shark-skin' paper. Jim Haynes - Aquarius Records Australian composer/improviser Philip Samartzis works with massed numbers of prerecorded sounds and field recordings, sometimes electronically processed, which he deploys in live improvisations using multiple playback machines. The scope of the territory covered is certainly enormous, but all that would be beside the point were Samartzis not able to pull together the disparate strands into a convincing, if often counterintuitive, whole. What makes Mort aux Vaches so convincing (all of the releases in this series, by various artists, are titled "Mort aux Vaches," incidentally) is that the sounds utilized are both fascinating in and of themselves and that they do indeed cohere into an unforced matrix, a structure as stable as it is alive. The first track, "Variable Resistance," utilizes high-pitched, clicking sounds along with brush-like washes to create the ambience of a dense insectile cloud, one that is entirely absorbing. When, toward the end of the piece, shouts and unidentifiable pounding suddenly leap in and out of the mix, it's giddily disorienting. "Deconstructed Windmills" begins with an investigation of deep, ringing drones before emerging briefly into a marvelous, carillon-like soundscape and then settling into an array of high and low flutters. The final and longest piece, "Soft and Loud," is also the most territorially ambitious, diving headlong from pachinko parlors into rushing water, from harsh slabs of dense orchestral works to sliced 'n' diced guitar rock. Difficult to describe other than to use shopworn descriptions like "kaleidoscopic," it's a rich, ever-surprising stew that will strongly appeal to any devotee of tape collage, musique concréte, or contemporary electro-acoustic improvisation. Highly recommended. Brian Olewnick - All Music Guide t r a c k l i s t : 1_   Variable Resistance     19m38s 2_   Deconstructed Windmills     12m42s 3_   Soft and Loud     27m33s