Spyros Polychronopoulos and Jannis Anastasakis
Nyfida
AUSTRALIA ROOM40 EDRM433 CD (2024)
Polychronopoulos surprised us in 2018 with his “polycarbonate box” thing – far from being a conventional CD release or anything like that, it was an odd black object which played a randomised version of his ingenious electronic music composition, resulting in new surprises every time the happy consumer pressed the button.
I had the impression then that this questing Greek was increasingly unsatisfied with much contemporary electronic music and wanted to find new ways of presenting it, even challenging the need for a performer, or the need for a composerly mind behind it. No such radical promises on today’s release though, which is awkward field recordings in the “furniture shifting” sub-genre; himself and Jannis Anastasakis stayed briefly at an old family home by the beach in an otherwise deserted village, and there’s a back-story where the quaint belongings (including a loom, and a sewing machine) of grand-dad and grand-mamma seem to have enchanted the couple, who were ostensibly there to lay down some tracks for their new album.
Not much enchantment has made it onto the finished grooves though, and it’s possible Spyros Polychronopoulos has subtracted much of the summer magic by over-working the multi-channel recordings for too many weeks. Even so, some faint traces of oddness surface among the queasy loops and vague forms. (10/06/2024)