The Wire #344, October 2012 (UK)

THE WIRE

The latest volume in our series of experimental and underground music compilation CDs.

Featuring 20 new, rare or unreleased tracks from Matthewdavid, Captain Miki, After The Rain, Center of the Universe featuring Easy, Andrey Kiritchenko, Wires Under Tension, David Coulter & Ralph Carney, Manuella Blackburn, Tudor Acid, Every Hidden Color, Valgeir Sigursson, Rhodri Davies, Last Days, Merzouga, Food Pyramid, Lind, Bohm, Ghikas & Walshe, jealousy mountain duo, Lasse-Marc Riek and Bersarin Quartett.

The Wire Tapper 30 CD comes with every copy of The Wire October 2012 (issue 344) and is available as a download to digital and print subscribers. For more information and a full tracklist head here.

Track 10
Every Hidden Color 
“I” (excerpt) 
from Luz
(Streamline)
Federico Durand and Nicholas Szczepanik work together as the duo Every Hidden Color. Durand weaves simple melodies together with field recordings made in the heart of Argentina. He adores books, autumn, John Keats’s poetry, botanical prints and Earl Grey tea. Szczepanik’s audio narratives are influenced by contemporary philosophy and fiction, and address the modern human condition with maximum emotional impact. 

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Thank you very much, The Wire! F.

"Luz" (Streamline, 2012) reviewed by Fluid Radio

Fluid Radio

EVERY HIDDEN COLOR: LUZ

Posted On: October 7, 2012

Posted In: Every Hidden Color, Every Hidden Color - Luz, Federico Durand, John Boursnell, Nicholas Szczepanik

Environmental sounds receding before gentle notes. Notes blurring into tones. Tones washing into grains, and fading into clouds and spaces. Spaces filled by the sound of rain…

These two long-form pieces are the result of collaboration between Federico Durand and Nicholas Szczepanik – both authors of fantastic albums this year – Durand’s ‘El Libro De Los Árboles Mágicos’ and Szczepanik’s ‘Please Stop Loving Me’ – the first an expert blend of field recordings and electronic textures, the latter a wonderfully realized slice of choral drone.

There is always a danger that collaboration will result in less than the whole – either each player backs off too much, too respectful and we lose their individual voices, or both deploys every bag-of-tricks they know to try and snare the spotlight. Happily, there is none of this here. We can guess at who might be responsible for leading each segment; the evolving drone in the second half of the first side bears Szczepanik’s fingerprints – the interplay of recordings and textures that bookend it feel more like Durand’s, but to ‘train-spot’ these passages misses the point of most collaborative practices, and the quality of the music here.

Having open, slow moving pieces works to the music’s advantage – rather than try to distill ideas into four or six pieces, segments, ideas, themes, sounds, are given space to unspool slowly (like the sound of film spooling through projector that runs through the opening minutes of side 2). While this can lead to hours of aimless noodling – a cd-r is can feel a very long seventy-four minutes – here the shifts between longer passages are perfectly timed; a looped vocal phoneme pings gently between speakers, and twenty seconds later, the entrance of plucked chords – a hint of banjo – changes the focus beautifully.

The second side slides in and out of focus – like the sepia pink-toned photograph on the cover – sometimes highlighting notes and chords, sometimes slipping back into time-dilating waves of granular sound. These shifts between textures are a joy to listen to – never jarring, never simply one obliterating the other – a sense of four hands at the desk, working with one mind.

This is a gem of an album; beautiful, thoughtful, that creates its own sense of time by giving its many ideas space to unfold. Guaranteed to reward repeated listens, get this while you can. Recommended!

- John Boursnell for Fluid Radio

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Thank you very much Fluid Radio, John Boursnell and Daniel Crossley!

Every Hidden Color review @ Brainwoshed (USA)

Brainwoshed, USA

A perfect pairing, Every Hidden Color is Argentina's Federico Durand and the US' Nicholas Szczepanik, both relatively young purveyors of dreamlike ambient music.  There are not really any surprises on this two track LP, which is a good thing:  it is a carefully constructed work that mixes beautiful, formless tonal drift with rich melodies of subtle construction.

Streamline

While Szczepanik has been rather prolific in short, diverse pieces (such as his Ante Algo Azul series of 12 3" cds), Durand has stuck mostly to the album length format, on works for Spekk and Own Records.  The two side-long pieces that make up Luz then seems to be a perfect middle ground for the two artists to work within.

The introduction to the A side of this work is really the only time that things are harsh:  a combination of fuzzy, almost abrasive noises and field recordings, creating a sense of tense urban chaos, which is soon counteracted by the appearance of delicate melodies.  These repeating tonal structures weave in and out, becoming the center of attention and enveloping the field recordings into a rich, powerful piece of music.  Slowly, almost imperceptibly throughout, these individual notes begin to blend together into a shimmering, amorphous drone that conveys the same lush beauty, but in a less structured manner.  Oddly enough, it is on a colder, isolated, almost creepy note that the side ends.

On the other side, more pastoral field recordings are mixed with looped, abstract textures to fascinating effect.  Atop this, slightly treated guitar is placed, mostly just delayed, so it retains the instrument’s natural sound.  The combination of conventional sounding guitar and processed, textural ambience works well together, and eventually the whole thing is bolstered by what sounds like layers of droning synthesizers, ending the album on a drifting, billowy passage.

Throughout Luz, a sense of delicate, but powerful beauty emanates from the layers of electronic sound and cautious melodies.  An unending stream of tone flows like a slow river, carrying glorious textures with it.  While there is an admirable simplicity to the way the album is constructed, it is by no means sparse or skeletal, it has just enough going on to be captivating, while still remaining meditative and calm.  Durand and Szczepanik compliment each other perfectly, and the result is a beautiful piece of sonic experimentation.

Creaig Dunton

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Thank you very much Creaig Dunton & Brainwashed, F.