Unusual sound-art collage thing by Leandro Barzabal is the LP Time Dommage Erosion (FRÉQUENCES CRITIQUES #5) …a strange mix of distorted and treated noise episodes, mutated by means of software it seems, along with some field recordings of the ocean and an experiment apparently involving a record of classical music, possibly Beethoven’s seventh symphony or Schubert’s Serenade from an old 78 RPM record.
We have previously noted this fellow’s more unhinged noise and guitar antics in a live-improv context, but it’s good to hear this Argentine fellow (living in Paris) making his mark in the electro-acoustic genre, or at least something resembling it. A lot of the record’s power comes from its French titles, which lend it a certain academic grandeur, while the creator’s personal insights and juxtapositions have a charm which verges on being poetic and surreal. The same qualities can be found in the assembly of these diverse elements, with the appearance of the “passage of the sea” which “clean the accumulated dust” making a marvellous disjunction to the flow of the piece. The audio interest afforded by his distortion experiments can quickly wear a bit thin, but the opening track ‘Carte Générale de Référence’ exerts a mesmeric fascination for a time.
It’s notable that he describes his editing and transformation work with such violent terms as “corroded” and “butchered”, which might not win him any awards from the INA GRM committee, who I suppose favour a more refined language to describe their craft. Perhaps a rather raw and rugged statement overall, but it is very heartfelt. Not sure when or how we got this item, but it was released May 2024.