Matilde Meireles, sound artist, concocted a sound-mapping project for Belfast in 2013-2019 – which involved linking together “telecommunication boxes” around the city. Here on Loop. And Again. (CRÓNICA 223) she reprocesses selected field recordings from that installation piece, which may have attempted to express ideas about linking parts of Belfast that had no connection to each other, finding new roads and pathways, exploring with fresh eyes. Not unlike the Situationists, in short, with their dérives of Paris and their psycho-geographic maps.
It’s a nice idea, but all Matilde Meireles manages to present is boring, interminable drones and humming sounds, occasionally punctuated with voices, traffic, and other ambient city sounds. It doesn’t convey much about the truth of Belfast, or any urban environment, or indicate what parts of it she wishes us to pay attention to; it’s as though she got so caught up in the sweeps of her own contact mics and ambisonic devices, that every capture seemed to be equally important to her. I’m finding the same lack of engagement and boredom as we heard on her Life of a Potato cassette, noted in 2022. (15/10/2024)