Tag: tomas gris

pan y rosas release arche by the olatunji duo

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the olatunji duo (txema fernandes and tomás gris) began playing together in 2000. their first recordings were improvisations for alto sax and drum. they have continued to play together when they can. this recording was made in asturias where txema lives with his family. as a duo they are interested in ritual and improvisation which provide the basis for a dialogue between the musicians and their environment.

on their first album for pan y rosas they use various percussion instruments; wind instruments; and the sound of their environment – friends and family, water, wind, bonfire, etc. all these elements combine to form a bridge between ritual and improvisation. objects. night. voice. wind. sparse. rattle. quietly passing through the gateless gate.

get the album here.

tomas gris live video documentation!

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from the com a mínim night of improvised music in november of 2010. tomas is playing electronics/objects/turntables/contact mics/etc.

from the official description:

IBA col•lectiu d’improvisació
proposa
COM A MÍNIM una nit d’improvisació internacional a Barcelona

centre Cívic Can Felipa (Pallars, 277) 5 de novembre de 2010 21 h

COM A MÍNIM, una nit d’improvisació internacional a Barcelona (Centre Cívic Can Felipa) vindrà a ser la continuació del Festival Internacional d’Improvisació MÍNIM, que enguany hauria celebrat la seva 8ª edició.

Ajuntant el treball organitzatiu d’IBA Col•lectiu d’Improvisació amb l’esforç econòmic i d’infraestructures dels seus patrocinadors, el Centre Cívic Can Felipa i L’Àrea de Joventut, serà possible seguir oferint a la ciutat de Barcelona les propostes més innovadores de la improvisació lliure contemporània.

La nit del 5 de novembre podrem tenir la possibilitat d’escoltar quatre artistes europeus que desenvolupen la seva feina al voltant de la improvisació amb propostes estables. En aquest sentit, Com a Mínim segueix apostant per formacions no esporàdiques, per poder oferir una visió concreta de la feina que els músics estan desenvolupant en l’actualitat com a solistes i en grup.

kind words for tomas gris

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tomas gris just got some kindly press from attn:magazine.

Rather than bring to a mind a more familiar collaborative setup – with musicians either arranged facing eachother, or all projecting outward toward their audience – Clarifications Of The Concept Of Object evokes a sense of being directly imposed upon as an individual, and being communicated to as an audience of one. Everything is up close, and had the album occupied physical space rather than imaginary headspace, one would no doubt have to duck and weave to avoid being struck by a teetering cymbal, the bell of a swooping clarinet, or one of the album’s odds-and-ends objects (which sound like cellophane, squeaky polystyrene and other flimsy, clanky materials). The listener is surrounded by sound, exposed to all sorts of timbral micro-detail as a result. Lips smack prior to a hollow wheeze of sax, while tom drum skins are stifled with the soft palms of hands, forbidden to resonate and cutting abruptly into a premature silence.

It’s a “quiet” album, retaining an unsteady balance between tension and release, presence and absence. Dead air is left to linger for seconds at a time, before the hurried clicks and snaps of cassette desk come clattering in as though overcome by an impatient instinct to fill the audio void. What helps Clarifications… retain interest throughout is the way in which new sounds are tricked into the picture – be it an alternate playing technique or a new object/instrument altogether – and within the context of such intricacy and minute detail, the impact of the unfamiliar is startling. While Gris takes the opportunity to tease listener expectation and launch a few surprises, there’s a sense that he could have pushed this aspect even further, as nothing beats those moments at which the listener expectation is upturned and suddenly left to wrestle with an unrecognisable sound.

original is here.

tomas gris – electroacoustic dada volume 3

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tomas grís action! the third installment in his solo electroacoustic dada series is now available. as described on the cover an improvised butcher of electric and acoustic sounds whose only law is that of the hyle mechanistic: amorphous syntax where extensions collide. what? awesome! that’s what. make sure you get it here. now!

kind words for chamber music by barriere, garcía, gris

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an older release just got a nice review over at fungus cerebri.

Lali Barriere, Miguel A. García, Tomás Gris – “Chamber Music” (Pan y rosas discos, 2011)

Primera grabación de Miguel A. García a petición del sello de Keith Helt, Pan y Rosas, (sin contar con la edición de Cooloola Monster) y disponible para descargar libremente desde la web del netlabel. Acompañando el no-input de Miguel, la catalana Lali Barriere, quien se presentó con diversos elementos de micropercusión (como canicas), y micrófonos de contacto y el madrileño Tomás Gris, con su ya mítica bandeja que tiene globos, muelles y otros objetos, hacen honor a su fama de outsiders, para formar un trío sólido en forma y resultado.

Esta “música de cámara” fue registrada en un concierto íntimo que tuvo lugar en lo que fue Arphouse (el hogar de Tomás) ante un público muy reducido. Pasando por la edición posterior de Miguel, lo que fue aquel concierto se convierte ahora en una pista de unos 20 minutos de duración.

Es muy interesante cómo trabajan los tres músicos en esta grabación, ya que ninguno de ellos utiliza instrumentos tradicionales, pero tampoco generan sonidos por ordenador. Se encuentran en una tierra de objetos encontrados, reutilizados y amplificados como si de una sesión futurista de Los Angeles Free Music Society se tratara.

Futurista por el resultado. El paisaje aquí descrito a partir de la improvisación libre nos traslada a un terreno áspero, frío y violento que bien recuerda a esas realidades distópicas del cyberpunk, o sin irnos tan lejos, al colapso industrial contemporáneo.

Conforme avanza la pieza, el sonido se va llenando de color, siempre de una manera agresiva formando un abstracto y errante in crescendo. Los sonidos que al principio parecían bloques de cemento, ahora cobran vida de una manera monstruosa, explotando en chirridos de lo que parecen quejidos de animales. Todo ello termina desapareciendo poco después, devolviéndonos al punto de inicio.

Atractiva narración, en definitiva, sea lo que sea que se esté contando aquí.

Miguel Angel de Blas

new release from tomas gris

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tomas gris has a new solo album out now called one man speaks alone. it’s available here and you should go get it. now.

…compilacion de tres tracks que ya estaban disponibles via soundcloud, con uno extra, inedito, grabado en memoria de Consuelo G.B. (09/02/2012 DEP).

…compilation of three tracks that were already available via soundcloud, with an extra track, unreleased, recorded in memory of Consuelo G.B. (09/02/2012 DEP).