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MOHANNA, NICKOLAS - Phase Line

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: Run/Off RUNNER003 Release Year: 2014 Note: multi-media sound artist from New York City who creates demanding, fast changing, flickering / oscillating synthetic music (based on concrete city sound sources) with stunning effect, sets you into a strange, de-humanized world...two tracks produced for the sound exhibition FOAM in London; "a great work of busy electronic systems, buzzing around like bees. Like big city traffic" [Frans de Waard] lim. 200 Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00 More Info "Commissioned for the sound exhibition FOAM, this piece oscillates through a variety of media saturated sources. From electronic billboards, kiosk stations and traffic control devices, these sharp reductions are knotted into sculptural arpeggiation, to stretch the mood and spatial impressions. Within this sonic territory, the shifting range of layers solidifies the piece, manifesting a vivid panoramic sensibility. In juxtaposing these concrete sounds, the piece sections into a detailed expanse with a rough interplay of rhythmic and yet muted fractal designs. These two tracks continue to show the working palette of Mohanna, relying on the intersection of deconstructed found sound and hypnotic processing. Also working as a visual artist, producing drawings and videos as accompaniments to sound pieces, Mohanna continues to draw upon the chance interactions within city environments as the source material for his textured forms. The recording was exhibited at a number of spaces which included: Wysing Arts Centre, Project Number Gallery, ANDOR. Limited edition of 200 copies in a full color custom gatefold." [label info] www.runoffeditions.com "Following another lengthy gap, here's a new work by Nickolas Mohanna. The previous work we'd reviewed was 'Parallax View' (see Vital Weekly 873) and looking at his discography there was only a cassette in between that release and this new one. His CV shows continuous activity, mainly in galleries in Japan, France, UK and the USA. The two pieces here were commissioned for the sound exhibition 'Foam' and 'this piece oscillates through a variety of media saturated sources. From electronic billboards, kiosk stations and traffic control devices, these sharp reductions are knotted into sculptural arpeggiation, to stretch the mood and spatial impressions'. There's more text, which I won't quote in full, but it seems to me that much of this was recorded using Mohanna's modular synthesizer set-up, but unlike 'Parallax View' the two pieces here, total length just under thirty-four minutes, seem to be less cosmic/krauty/space-like, but perhaps all a bit more experimental and less easy to access . The other day I was playing a whole bunch of old Conrad Schnitzler records and I recognize his 'non-keyboard synthesizer' work in the two pieces by Mohanna. Lots of knob fiddling in order to create dense patterns of synthesizer sounds. I am not sure if these synthesizer sounds are being triggered by any kind of external sources, but me thinks it is. Maybe (or perhaps most likely?) the busy sounds of the big city? It's hard to say what it is actually, but it's perhaps not really necessary to know either; it's a great work of busy electronic systems, buzzing around like bees. Like big city traffic." [FdW/Vital Weekly]