{"id":11190,"date":"2021-10-01T10:57:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T08:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digipur.it\/?p=11190"},"modified":"2021-10-01T10:58:54","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T08:58:54","slug":"echo-ex-machina-is-the-first-solo-record-by-simone-faraci-an-electronic-concept-on-voices-mediated-by-technology-out-today-october-1st-2021-via-slowth-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digipur.it\/en\/echo-ex-machina-is-the-first-solo-record-by-simone-faraci-an-electronic-concept-on-voices-mediated-by-technology-out-today-october-1st-2021-via-slowth-records\/","title":{"rendered":"“Echo Ex Machina” is the first solo record by Simone Faraci, an electronic concept on voices mediated by technology out today October 1st, 2021 via Slowth Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

Echo Ex Machina<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is the first solo record by\u00a0Simone Faraci<\/strong>, an Italian musician based in Bologna, where he has been active for several years in the electroacoustic improvisation scene, also with the collective Minus of which he is one of the founders. After various experiences in the field of classical music, he currently focus on\u00a0experimental and electronic music<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Out today\u00a0October 1st, 2021<\/strong>\u00a0on CD and on all digital platforms\u00a0via\u00a0Slowth Records<\/strong>,\u00a0Echo Ex Machina\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>was born from a suggestion that arose during the pandemic. In fact, over the past two years we have increasingly surrounded ourselves with\u00a0voices mediated by technological tools<\/strong>. These voices come from afar, dismembered and reconstructed by digital technology.<\/p>\n

The idea of a project about this theme initially materialized in a live solo presented for the historical research, production and musical teaching center\u00a0Tempo Reale,\u00a0founded by Luciano Berio in Florence.\u00a0Everything then evolved using the collaboration with the vocal performer\u00a0Agnese Banti<\/strong>\u00a0and finally transformed into a\u00a0concept album<\/strong>\u00a0in five tracks (Apparatus [songmachine]\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>and\u00a0\u03a4\u03c5\u03ad\u03c1\u03c4\u03b9\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>chosen as singles in radio edit version), to be enjoyed however as a unique composition.<\/p>\n

The record is based on four concepts:\u00a0voice, distance, machine, metamorphosis<\/strong>.\u00a0The title summarizes these concepts by referring to the figure of Echo and her myth, handed down by Ovid in\u00a0The Metamorphoses<\/em>.\u00a0In Ovid’s work, Echo loses her body and turns into pure sound that wanders invisibly through the woods.\u00a0Likewise, our voices travel bodyless in the video call stream and social media feeds, like an echo of our presence.\u00a0This topic is approached in a different way in each of the five tracks,\u00a0along the course of a concise and extremely fresh electronic flow.<\/p>\n

The first track\u00a0Scroll Macabre<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is composed exclusively of materials sampled from the reels of Instagram. The succession of these voices and sound events creates a speech that is charged with meaning even in its pseudo-randomness. In the background, a loop with a macabre mood marks the alienation of the repetitive action of the scroll.<\/p>\n

\u03a4\u03c5\u03ad\u03c1\u03c4\u03b9<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0was born from the collaboration with Banti. Here words do not exist, because they appear dismembered in a myriad of syllables, to be reassembled by a random algorithm, which brings them together in a totally unconscious way. It is a game of inputs in which the listener can find his\/her own interpretation of what the machine proposes: syllables are only sounds, it is our mind that is looking for a meaning.<\/p>\n

Metam\u00f2rpho<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is the only track with a real text, however deformed by a rhythmic grid in contrast to the original metric. The text in question is made up of very few verses taken from Ovid’s\u00a0The Metamorphoses<\/em>, read in Latin through a vocoder. The short nocturnal landscape in the central part of the track is dotted with small interventions of vocal residues, reminiscent of the ASMR universe.<\/p>\n

Vox Aeterna<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0gives space to singing in its harmonic dimension, referring to the music of Gy\u00f6rgy Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen: the voice of Banti seems to move in an empty space, in a continuous timbre transformation, in a cyclical agglomeration and rarefaction of chords, framed by pure frequencies of the synthesizer.<\/p>\n

Apparatus [songmachine]<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0represents an imaginary singing machine capable of producing various voices.\u00a0In this track, different techniques are used to elaborate the voice that becomes a malleable material, in constant evolution.\u00a0A series of vocal metamorphoses alternate on the rhythmic grid traced by a vocal synthesis motor: voices that seem to come from metal bodies, voices that turn into birdsong, madrigals played by a turntablist, or the autotune used as a distorting mirror of the\u00a0vocal timbre.<\/p>\n