Samartzis/Muller/Voicecrack – Wireless_Within (For4Ears)

Voicecrack are a duo renowned for their incredible work with cracked electronics. Back in 2002 they toured Australia, setting up a table in the pit below the stage the Corner Hotel where they placed their wares, they proceeded to improvise as the audience crowded around and marvelled at their work. The occasion was What Is Music, a bill that also included Swiss artist Gunter Muller and local field recordist and sonic extremist Philip Samartzis. It seems at this time Samartzis coaxed the three disparate artists into the studio for some improv work and the results appear on Wireless_Within. Samartzis has recorded, mixed and mastered this work and also provides much of the context via his incredibly vivid field recordings. Initially Samartzis provides a gentle bush scene of cicadas, flies and the odd birdcall, which slowly becomes enmeshed with the discarded digitialia of his Swiss counterparts. Later Samartzis wields his recordings as a weapon as short fragments react almost musically within this dark skittery electronic landscape. Consisting of three pieces operating at between 16 and 21 minutes, there’ much strange oddly rhythmic stuttering electronics and difficult pitches of sound, though the key is the subtle developments, sonic diversity and interplay between the disparate sonic elements.