"A través del espejo" reviewed by Fluid Radio

A Través Del Espejo is another highly accomplished album from composer Federico Durand, his first on 12k. Whilst employing a similar palette of instruments and techniques to previous (excellent) albums like El libro de los árboles mágicos, this collection seems to look less to the forest, hills and skies, instead radiating a warmer domesticity.

Bell-like sounds and scrapes feel close to the ear, close to the hand – you can almost imagine (and at times, hear) Durand reaching for small sounding objects, using microphones as instruments, pushing looping pedals, coaxing gentle collages out of his chosen ingredients.

Grain (whether sound or film), music boxes, glockenspiels, are sometimes associated with a particular strand of uncritical nostalgia, the same one that gives us ‘retro’ filters for smartphone pictures (perhaps an argument for another day) but there is none of that here; instead Durand gives us ten loose but perfectly formed miniatures that frame a sense of home as both domestic and dream-like.

Highlights could be the crystal clear high end chiming loop at the centre of Diorama, or the burbles and clicks of Canción de la Vía Láctea (Milky Way Song). Indeed, the whole second half of the album is particularly strong, seeming to swell outwards and upwards in a way that confirms Durand as a quiet talent, making the best music of his career so far. A Través Del Espejo is a thing of restrained wonder, a love song to home, hearth and the warmth of magnetic tape. I can’t wait to hear what’s next. – Highly recommended.

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Thank you very much Fluid Radio for this wonderful review! F.

A beautiful review form Japan

アルゼンチンのサウンド・アーティスト フェデリコ・デュラン（と読むのか？）が12Kより発表した新作。
私はこの作品で初めて彼の作品を耳にしましたが、東京のレーベルSpekkなどから何作か発表したこともあるようです。

今 回12Kからの処女作、ということですが、2014年にはレーベルオーナーのテイラー・デュプリーや、ステファン・マシュー、iLLuHaなどの12K アーティスト達と共演した経験もあるようで、徐々にこのレーベルから作品をリリースする準備をしていたであろうことが伺えます。

一聴してみて気が付くと思いますが、本作はいたってメロウな質感のアンビエント作品に仕上がっています。
キラキラと輝くような金属音や、ゆったりとした音響、フィールドレコーディング素材などが繊細に重ねられ、とても牧歌的な心地よさを感じさせてくれる、まさしく「12K的」な作品と言えるでしょう。

本 作にてデュランはシンセサイザーやピアノなどの鍵盤楽器のほか、ギリシャ発祥の撥弦楽器ライアーやオルゴール（ミュージック・ボックス）、様々なオブジェ クトを用いています。（ライヤーも黒鉛筆で演奏したようです。'hammered with a black pencil）
多少の電子楽器は含みつつも、多くはアコースティックな楽器であったり、木やテープ、グラスにナイフといった、言ってしまえば「オーガニック」なものが用いられています。

また、この手の音楽においては、そういった録音に使われる素材ももちろんですが、ポストプロダクションで使われる機材もまた同様に重要です。
彼はその部分について、今作ではアナログエフェクターを用いて行い、ラップトップは一切使用していません。
今回用いられたのはオールドファッションなロック・ミュージックや、ジャマイカンダブなどで使用された名機Roland Space Echo RE-201やエレハモ社製のルーパーEhx 2880などです。

さらに、そこに加えて使用されたのはMDやソニー製のカセットプレイヤー（TCM-200DV）です。
iLLuHaの伊達伯欣の手記によれば、彼はブランクのTDK社製カセットテープから流れる音をライヴの素材（背景）として使っているそうです。
同 手記には、彼がこの製品に対して強い愛着を感じているらしいことも記されていますが、本来であれば無音であるはずのテープから流れる、ざわざわとした揺ら ぎや暖かく仄かなノイズなどが皮膜のようにレイヤーされることで、作品全体に独特なノスタルジアを生ぜしめているように感じました。

先述 のアナログエフェクターへのこだわりもそうですが、こういった彼のフェティッシュな美意識が、実際に音となって反映されることで我々の意識をハードな現実 から隔絶する壁/膜のような役割を果たし、オーガニックな素材により録音された音や話し声が織りなすドリーミーな世界に我々を没入させてくれるのかもしれ ません。
個人的には、この壁/膜のようなノイズが、マーカス・フィッシャーが2010年に同じく12Kより発表した"Monocoastal"と共通した空気/サウダーヂ感を彼の作品にもたらしているように思います。

12Kファンや、"Monocoastal"が好きな方には大推薦盤です。
2016年の12Kも期待大ですね！

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Thank you very much Eternal Music for this nice review! F.

"A través del espejo" reviewed by Silence And Sound (France)

Federico Durand - A Través Del Espejo

(12K)

C’est à un monde emprunt de douceur et de légèreté que nous convie le nouvel album de l’argentin Federico Durand, avec A Través Del Espejo,qui n’est pas sans évoquer une certaine idée de cet « autre » moi que l’on pense voir et discerner à travers le miroir. Ici les boites à musique, carillons et autres instruments à lames et à cordes que l’on effleure, s’emploient à dessiner des motifs tutoyant les bords d’un abime en forme de doux précipice. Federico Durand bâtit des mélodies puisant leurs ressources dans une poésie embrumée de musique aérienne et de broderie féérique. Les pointillés de ses notes se superposent avec élégance, donnant à apercevoir la beauté d’un monde enfoui, que l’on cache sous un manteau d’étoiles, souvenirs d’une enfance heureuse baignée de mélancolie vaporeuse et de lumière jaunie. A Través Del Espejo ne se contente pas de jouer avec les sens, véhiculant des histoires irisées par le temps, aux angles arrondies et courbes horizontales, flottant sur les soubresauts de l’âge tendre, perché dans les profondeurs d’un cortex flirtant avec les caresses du vent, les voiles gonflées à bloc pour remonter lentement les courants d’une énergie bienfaitrice. Vital.

Roland Torres

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Thank you very much Roland & Silence And Sound for this nice review! F.

Review by Vital Weekly

FEDERICO DURAND - A TRAVES DEL ESPEJO (CD by 12K)

By now you must be familiar with the name Federico Durand, with his releases on Spekk, Own and Desire Path, either solo or with the duo Melodia. Apparently, like other musicians from Argentina, he's big in Japan and plays a lot of concerts over there. In 2014 he bumped into Taylor Deupree, head honcho of 12K and became friends and that friendship now brings us this album of new solo pieces, all inspired (apparently as always) by his family. The cover lists all of his instruments, which makes an interesting read: "Auris lyre hammered with a black pencil, synthesizer, piano, music boxes, Roland Space Echo RE-201, Ehx 2880, Mackie 402VLZ4, hokema, little objects, crystal cups bowed with a penknife, Koshi chime, Fostex X18, contact microphone, minidisc, Sony TCM-200DV, owl of wood, tape loops, scissor and masking tape"; I guess it sums up his love for small objects and all things analogue. I understand also that much of what Durand does is hands-on: playing all of this with his two hands and looping stuff on the spot, thus creating this very intimate sound his music always seem to have. More than before it seems we now hear snippets of voices, maybe from around his own house, children voices. It is perhaps a reminder of home-life when he is on the road? For me it's also another reminder: that of the music of Dominique Petitgand, who was also an avid taper of domestic life, and who also used small instruments around these home recordings; there is however one distinction and that is that for Petitgand it was almost obligatory to use them in every track, whereas Durand uses it more sparsely. For him the sound of his 'toys' play the most crucial role, and it makes his work less of a radio-play and it seems to be using a bit more melody, which he loops around and creates beautiful hissy pieces of music with. Sometimes, such as in 'Linternas Junto A La Laguna (Lanterns beside the lake)', the cassette hiss forms even the most substantial part of the composition but usually it's a few sparse notes on the piano, a bow playing a small object to create some overtones, and everything pitched up and down, to form a web of small tones, intertwining with each other. All of this is a highly natural setting, free from digital processing or other computer tricks. In the official world of music journalism one would say 'honest' music. I don't believe in such notions. But I'd say this is highly personal music, without caring too much about 'styles', 'trends' or 'scenes' and this is some damn fine release. (FdW)

Address: http://www.12k.com

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Thank you very much Vital Weekly and FdW for this review! F.

A beautiful review of "A través del espejo"

Argentinian composer Federico Durand marks his debut release for 12K with A través del espejo. A glistening ambient daydream spun through crackling casette recorders, various small instruments, toys, bells and the fuzzy echoes turned air recordings that whirred softly in the background as he carefully crafted each track.

The ten track titles are talk enough; Recuerdos en Super 8 (Memories on Super 8), Linternas junto a la laguna (Lanterns beside the lake) or Hora de dormir (Time to sleep), each a small sunlit signpost into Durand’s oh-so-sparse instrumental world.

Babies coo-ing and children singing are the sole voices, making just one appearance on Hora de dormir. But they’re half-heard, just audible beneath the airy crackle and singular melody line. A dream or a memory, but a comforting one. Laced in nostalgia but defiantly anti-twee thanks to the album’s seriously slowwwwww pace: you’re too busy floating (or falling) to worry about anything.

Experimental and soft, lullaby material for all ages, A través del espejo is a glorious demonstration of the discipline and patience Durand exercises inside his toy-box cornucopia of odd machines and found sounds; a dreamworld in itself.

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Thank you very much When I heard You & Kim for this review! F.

Beautiful review by Music Won't Save You (Italy) & Album of the week

FEDERICO DURAND – A través del espejo (12k, 2016)*

I diari sonori di viaggio di Federico Durand, dopo aver avuto per oggetto luoghi fisici (“El libro de los árboles mágicos”, “El Estanque Esmeralda”) e trasceso gli orizzonti temporali della memoria (“Música para Manuel”), attraversano ora i confini immaginari della fantasia e insieme quelli organici delle particelle sospese nell’aria attraversata da luci e forme rifratte.

Come da titolo, “A través del espejo” nasce infatti dal vagheggiamento di attraversare la superficie di uno specchio e dalla parallela fascinazione da parte dell’artista argentino per il loop di immagini prodotto dalla collocazione di due specchi uno di fronte all’altro.

Il viaggio “attraverso lo specchio” è condotto da Durand con la consueta delicatezza minimale incentrata su stille acustiche, field recordings e micro-suoni assortiti, giustapposti a creare minute iterazioni armoniche, sospese in un’ambience granulosa, che ben rappresenta la suggestione dalla quale l’album è scaturito. Nonostante la sua idea di base, anzi proprio in ragione della stessa, “A través del espejo” è tutt’altro che un lavoro piatto o uniforme, in quanto Durand utilizza gli specchi non in maniera autoreferenziale ma appunto come semplici mezzi per riflettere immagini dotate di propria autonoma identità. Le immagini, dunque, sono nuovamente protagoniste della sua ricerca concettuale e sonora, anche se nell’occasione catturate e proiettate verso uno spazio fisico e mentale in(de)finito.

Seguendo questo processo, prendono forma esili rifrazioni armoniche, generata da meccanismi come quelli di delicati carillon, incentrati su rilucenti vibrazioni acustiche (“Mirador en la montaña (Viewpoint In The Mountain)”, “Linternas junto a la laguna (Lanterns Beside The Lake)”) o su cadenzate note pianistiche (“El jardín encantado (The Enchanted Garden)”). Nell’universo elettro-acustico di Durand suoni reali e prodotti da fonti analogiche si combinano in molecole aleggianti in ambienti ovattati e sognanti (“Canción de la Vía Láctea (Milky Way Song)”) o scorrono su binari paralleli, instillando iterazioni che ancora una volta scandagliano la memoria attraverso i diversi mezzi di dolci narcolessie (“Recuerdos en Super 8 (Memories On Super 8)”) e di istantanee di voci cristallizzate in un altrove spazio-temporale (“Hora de dormir (Time To Sleep)”).

Solo i pulviscolari detriti atmosferici in dissolvenza della conclusiva title track rivelano che, in fondo, si è trattato di visioni originate da sogni o da semplici artifici fisici, quelli appunto di un gioco di specchi, una magia semplice, affascinante e dispensatrice di infiniti dettagli, metafora perfetta per l’impressionistica sensibilità sonora di Federico Durand.

*disco della settimana dall’11 al 17 gennaio 2016

~Thank you very much Music Won't Save You for this review! F.