For mine, Mexican sound artist Fernando Corona’ processing and re-configuration of organic, particularly strings-based materials has been the forte of his releases under the Murcof name. His latest release, The Versailles Sessions, intended as a stopgap curiosity before the release of Cosmos follow-up Oceana, travels further in this direction, surrounding the treatment of French baroque instruments, particularly the viola da gamba and harpsichord. The release is the result of a site-specific commission for Les Grande Eaux Nocturnes, an arts festival based in a Versailles chateau. The resultant 50 minutes certainly outgrows its status, encompassing a huge range of sounds, without straying to the light or tacky, as has arguably occurred in the past.
Immediately, the sound worlds created by Corona in particularly his treatment of string instruments are pungent, deriving the most weighty elements of their sound. The introduction of a mezzo-soprano in “A Lesson For The Future, Farewell†widens the character of the release significantly, the voice struggling in and out of particularly haunting reverb treatments and the melodic mirroring of a viola da gamba. A great range of timbres are achieved, not least for these instruments’ intrinsic differences, but also Corona’ diverse re-arrangements of their sounds, simultaneously channeling their antiquity, as well as consciously acknowledging the modernity of his treatments. The resulting impression ranges from the solemn to the utterly malignant, akin more to Medieval brutality than baroque subtlety, the arrangement and processing of instruments here exploiting their most gutteral and biting timbres.
The baroque period seems apt for Corona’ musical outlook, the passion, drama and darkness of its underside, as against the more widely peddled light dance music of the French baroque, mirrors the heavy, gothic tones that Corona regularly channels in his treatment of sampled materials. The Versailles Sessions is a considerably interesting musical exercise, and perhaps outdoes other, more significant releases under the Murcof moniker for its musicality and inventiveness.
Marcus Whale
