viernes, 28 de noviembre de 2014

Review de "La estrella dormida" por Infinite Grain


Infinite Grain

A constellation where innocence rests in eternity; a field made of the paths of stars that sleep in the day to tell the stories of the night. Sound is here a fleeting light, a intermittent dream that seems awake, wandering in the trails of cosmic imagination; deep, fragile, colorful. Following the steps of the dawn, Federico Durand draws remote landscapes that send the listener through the hidden subtlety of the lightness of life; delicate and radiant, ready to challenge the soul in a fantasy between nature and infinity, between simplicity and nostalgia. Among warm melodies, soft structures, some field recordings and spellbound loops, Durand builds a magical world where the mind subsides, the heart expands, and the song of stillness finds its niche among surreal echoes, perhaps of sounds, perhaps of memories. It is as if for one night, stars and dreams gathered together to write songs to the moon. (white paddy mountain)

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Muchas gracias Infinite Grain por la escucha atenta y sensible! F.

Review de "La estrella dormida" por Hawái


Hawái - La estrella dormida / Federico Durand

A través de White Paddy Mountain, el label de Chihei Hatakeyama, podemos escuchar estos retazos producidos al otro lado de Los Andes. Federico Durand produce un álbum de canciones en su mayoría breves, extractos de desarrollos más prolongados que se mantienen como recuerdos fugaces de ideas inacabadas. Utilizando herramientas que no ocupan demasiado espacio Durand se encarga de extraer sonidos y melodías de una hermosa fragilidad. “La estrella dormida” reúne diez piezas que poseen una misma sonoridad que cruza todo el disco, aún cuando las texturas sean diferentes. Un murmullo de sonido rugoso, una superficie desigual que se puede palpar en cada una de ellas, un ruido imperfecto que sirve de suelo donde se apoyan esos acordes. Loops imprecisos sobre un plano borroso, las notas se repiten encima de la acústica delicada formando unas estructuras de cristal roto. A menudo parecen prólogos de composiciones mayores, quedándose en un esbozo de algo que podría ser, dejando una extraña y agradable sensación en el aire. Este trabajo surge casi desde casualidad, como si sus canciones fueran encontradas sin ser buscadas, recogidas de algún lugar en el campo.

(…) 

Continuar leyendo AQUI.


Muchas gracias Hawái por la reseña! F.

"La estrella dormida" reviewed by Textura


Federico Durand: La estrella dormida 
White Paddy Mountain


Buenos Aires-based sound artist Federico Durand sets the tone for his La estrella dormida (The Sleeping Star) with a liner note that reads, in part: “Sometimes at dusk, from the train window, I can see the first star in the sky. Its light is a company that stays by my side during the travel until it gets dark. Then, like a magical presence, the stars, with its shining melody, invite me to dream.La estrella dormida ... is an album to listen to at sunset, during that moment when the sky changes its colour and houses and gardens turn pink, silent, and musical at the same time.” Such words provide a perfect entry-point for the forty-two-minute release, given that their evocative, dream-like tone form a natural complement to the ten settings.

If the music is characterized by one thing in particular, it's intimacy: not only is the listener made to feel as if he/she has been granted access to Durand's inner world, the recording and its “small melodies” were created by him alone using piano, E-bow, analogue synthesizer, music boxes, cassette-tape loops, crystal glasses, and assorted other “tiny things.” There's a hazy quality to the production and a relaxed feel, too, both of which suggest that La estrella dormida was recorded in the comfort of Durand's home.

The pieces themselves are less songs than ambient soundscaping vignettes sprinkled with microsound textures and melodic fragments. Each piece drifts placidly along for two to six minutes at a time, with delicate, fluttering breaths of piano, bells, guitar, and synth tones draped across the tracks' gently undulating surfaces. Perhaps none of the pieces is lovelier than “Reflejos del sol en la superficie del agua,” a twilight ambient serenade that unfolds with a finely calibrated grace, while the one that's most dream-like is “El sueño de Fabergé” for featuring so prominently the bell-like warble of the music box.

Anyone acquainted with the White Paddy Mountain releases issued prior to Durand's will identify La estrella dormida right away as a natural member of that particular club, given that the albums Chihei Hatakeyama has released on his label to date have all shared a stylistic concern for understated ambient soundsculpting.

December 2014

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Thank you very much Textura for listening and heartfelt apreciation! F.

Momories of this year : Stephan Mathieu + Taylor Deupree + ILLUHA + Federico Durand at Komyoji Temple, Kamakura


Music in a beautiful old temple in Kamakura, Japan.

You can see an excerpt of this concert :



And you can purchase the full concert with music made by Sawako + Ken Ikeda, Toshimaru Nakamura + Tetuzi Akiyama, Tetsuro Yasunaga + Melodía (Tomoyoshi Date & Federico Durand) :

Kualauk Table ~ Concerts

Have a nice day!

Federico

sábado, 22 de noviembre de 2014

OUT NOW ~ Adormidera (limited cassette-tape)



OUT NOW ~ Federico Durand - Adormidera
50 copies only.


Beautiful cassette tape + Original silkscreen + Cloth-bed
Very unique pice of art, made by Femke and Pieter.
label : Dauw Label (Ghent, Belgium)
artwork : Original art piece by Femke
release date : 22 November 2014
format : Cassette-tape

"Adormidera” is the Spanish word for poppy flower. This tape, originally released as a very limited tour souvenir, has two long pieces crafted with circular melodies. 70's and 80's cassette tapes were used during the recordings.
The first piece "Niebla, montaña, pinos" is a transcription of a dream where a choir of girls sung to celebrate the harvest. I made it with very lo-fi recordings from Youtube.
The second piece is "Adormidera” in which I also used layers of voices, acoustic guitar and piano.

“Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?” - John Keats
Buenos Aires, Southern Spring of 2014

viernes, 21 de noviembre de 2014

Concierto 9 de diciembre - RISTRA, muestra de Fernando Mariani


RISTRA

Fotografías de Fernando Mariani

Inauguración 
Martes 9 diciembre 2014
20:00 horas
Música: Federico Durand 

El Monte Fotografia
Juana Azurduy 2128
Ciudad de Buenos Aires

La muestra se puede ver hasta el miércoles 31 de diciembre 2014.

jueves, 20 de noviembre de 2014

November 22nd : A very limited cassette-tape! FD - Adormidera (Dauw, Belgium)

Adormidera was released in 2012 by my own tape label Pudú with my Sao Paulo friends from SNPB for the European Tour. 

This cassette was soldout during the concerts. 

Now... A very limited repress will be released by Dauw, from the old flamish city of Ghent, Belgium.


50 copies -only- with original artwork made by Femke and Pieter.

Each tape is an unique pice of art.

Federico Durand : Adormidera

label : Dauw Label (Ghent, Belgium)
artwork : Original art piece by Femke
release date : 22 November 2014
format : Cassette-tape


To purchase, please visit : https://dauw.bandcamp.com/

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Some pictures of the art-work process: