Introduction
Nelson P. Ferreira & Rui P. Andrade – Miklós
Artist: Nelson P. Ferreira & Rui P. Andrade
Title / Release Page: Miklós
Release Date: 2014 Dec 12
Genre: Experimental Electronic
License: CC BY-NC-SA
Media: MP3 / OGG / FLAC
Pricing: Free / Name Your Price
Label: HAZE Netlabel
Rating: ★★★★★★
Nelson P. Ferreira & Rui P. Andrade – Miklós is not your typical album by any measure. It’s not straight forward dark ambient, it’s straight forward minimalism, it’s not even a straight forward experimental album. in all, it’s a rather difficult release to pin down.
Nelson P. Ferreira & Rui P. Andrade – Miklós
Even Ferreira & Andrade have some difficulties in pinning down this release. From their description:
The result is either the destruction of acoustics and production values similar to high profile acts they admire, or a journey through lush bursts of processed soundscapes.
How did they reach a point where it is possible to see this release in both ways? Well, it comes down to the concept of deconstruction. In their own words:
…the concept of deconstructing several compositional stages by which electronic music goes through, blending it with other derivatives of experimentalism such as loud guitar work and infra-sonic glitches.
So, in a way, this could be seen as a release that is a bunch of Lego blocks that have been melted and twisted into different shapes. At some point all of the blocks fit together in some way, but now they only partly fit together into some other mangled form.
What is unusual about the approach taken by Ferreira and Andrade is to not present the original starting point. IE, it’s somewhat common for an artist to present a work in a finished form, and then set out on a path to deconstruct the work as a series of variations on the original.
Instead this work is presented as a series of loops, leads, “oompf’s” and audio pieces of varying lengths, textures, rhythms, and densities which the listener is challenged to create the framework in which they fit together. Which would, in many cases, seem like it’s an academic exercise: something that a student might do in an electronic music lab as part of a study. Except for one thing: these pieces are built in such a way that they stand on their own, even though they are part of a larger whole.
So, where does that leave this release? On it’s own, it’s hard to listen to it as a recording of a multiple works, and yet it in this deconstructed and mangled state it’s not easy to hear how they might actually come together. So, in a way it can be seen as the deconstruction that Ferreira and Andrade set out to create, and it can be seen as the soundscapes they feel they ended up with. However, neither of these are representations of the whole work.
Conclusion
This is where a work can be difficult to pin down. Nelson P. Ferreira & Rui P. Andrade – Miklós deconstructs a work in a manner in which it is melted and mangled into another form. The pieces that result do stand on their own, and yet they lack the apparent relationship to each that would make them into something bigger. Which makes the whole work something like an academic experiment, and yet it is a bit more than the standard work that a student might produce.
If nothing else, this is the kind of work that might be appealing to other musicians: those that are looking for a different perspective on the production process, or want to find out how far the parts of a piece can be stretched. While it is an interesting work, it’s difficult to see beyond this limited appeal.
