SLÁINTE, a sonic essay: past, me, walls, marches, murals, present, fire, mishaps, missteps, politics, art, cráic, others and future. Northern Ireland.
Most recordings produced between 2009-2015.
Credits:
Steering ears, production and mastering by Fernando Iazzetta
Cover Design by Ana Catarina Mealha Guerreiro
Rui Chaves is a teacher, artist and scholar. His interests lie in performance, curation, music and writing. Visiting professor at the Paraíba Federal University visual arts department (2020-2024).
http://www.ruichaves.com
http://www.nendu.net
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/making-it-heard-9781501383205/
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Acute listening and situated sonic knowledge mark this release by Rui Chaves for the Brazilian label Berro. Based on recordings in Northern Ireland between 2009 and 2015 while Chaves was pursuing postgraduate research at SARC, Queen’s University Belfast, this album is a fascinating sonic essay portraying an experience of urban and rural environments. The layering of sonic textures, recognisable earcons and environments makes for fascinating listening. Always well timed and paced, Chaves shares his intimacy with the sound materials he presents. The album is beautifully crafted, taking the listener on a seamless journey through sonic materials that might otherwise be incompatible; birdsong, water, wind, sounds of work, the city, human presence are constantly in interplay with one another in rewarding juxtapositions. Divided in four ‘acts’ with durations between five and ten minutes, the album plays with scale, proximity and distance from the ‘first person’ perspective of act I to the expanse of act II with an unexpected yet poignant political use of music reference. An eavesdropping act III reveals a playful collage of incidental sound, improvisation and human presence. The album finishes with an engaging multilayered drone suggesting a sense of stasis and arrival after the inventive and at times jarring sonic journey in the previous acts. A fascinating sonic journey with expert ears taking us through both recognisable and unknown worlds of sound.
Pedro Rebelo
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Logo no início da peça, uma voz aprecia o efeito reverberante de seu
entorno, talvez uma caverna. O gesto musical de Rui parece repetir
esse estabelecimento de contato com os ambientes. Porém, em vez da voz de garganta, emite as de seu conhecimento eletroacústico e sobretudo a da sensibilidade de suas escolhas e de sua escuta. O ‘talvez’, da caverna, nos recompensa a imaginação fabricante, estimulada entre o reconhecimento e a ignorância das fontes sonoras, numa sequência de edições provocadoras. A bela massa do quarto ato reverbera, diluídas, sonoridades dos anteriores.
Rodolfo Caesar