Eric La Casa

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Was listening to Eric La Case "air.ratio" CD and wondering has there been talk of his work on the forum? Did search and could find only few mentions of his works, and some of the myself. So... recommendations?

Air.Ratio is excellent disc. Idea is very simple: Recordings done between 2000-2003 in Paris, about sound of ventilation systems of various buildings. 

Of course it may sound quite artsy for some people, to just have pair of good sensitive microphones and direct it towards humming and resonating ventilation. BUT, the very big but is that it sounds great. Compositionally it is quite close to many Chop Shop releases. Relatively short chunks of sound are assembled together merely by instant brutal cut. No fades, no neat transitions, but simply hhummmm/zzzzzzz/ccchhzzz/ppfffff/ type, where between each cut, only thing what happens is minimalistic sound realm of that particular location.  In case of Chop Shop it is of course sound of specific speaker and its rotten / decaying quality.

I guess I have written about Jean-Luc Guionnet & Eric La Casa "Maison.House II.V" which I like a lot, but is very much conceptual and artsy piece. The Stones Of The Threshold CD on Groundfault (now sadly closed down!) must be quite well known disc among noise people due good availability and nice price.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Lets throw couple of samples:
something I could call "ruralist noise", haha: mentioned Groundfault's CD release: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ME-SfKyKdM
Perhaps pure "industrial" in form of construction site field recordings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOrTMbhzAD0

[ImpulsyStetoskopu]

Was listening to Eric La Case "air.ratio" CD and wondering has there been talk of his work on the forum? Did search and could find only few mentions of his works, and some of the myself. So... recommendations?

One of my favourite composer in field recordings and musique concrete genres our times. I prefer his works as SYLLYK, for example album Syllyk / Koji Marutani - "Other-wise" is real classic or solo "Ascendre, À L'Ombre Du Vent", very nice work. ‎

[Zeno Marx]

2nd generation French electro-acoustician?  3rd gen?  I should know this.  First heard him with Syllyk on V/A Howard 31, and then ran into a used copy of O Comme Icare at Amoeba.  Definitely took notice and probably the first time I'd heard electro-acoustics.  I think L'Empreinte De L'Ivresse might be my favorite release from him, but there are quite a few I've never heard.  For the powerhouse names involved with Afflux, the parts remained greater than the sum.  You're better off finding each of them under their own name.

[acsenger]

Idea is very simple: Recordings done between 2000-2003 in Paris, about sound of ventilation systems of various buildings. 

Francisco Lopez has a CD based on a similar idea: Buildings [New York] has, I think, all kinds of noises from New York buildings. (Chop Shop was involved in the field recordings.) It's a great album from memory. Like Mikko said, people could say what's the big deal with recording building noises and then editing them? Well, it sounds great and that's what matters!

I heard Eric La Casa & & Jean-Luc Guionnet's Inscape. Lille-Flandres CD a couple years ago, but didn't like it. It might have had to do with my crap hifi but it seemed unfocused and too artsy. It was field recordings used in an installation. However, since the physicality of sounds in such sound art is quite important, I might like it better on a good hifi.

[Zeno Marx]

Talk about coming out of the gates at full stride.  His first two releases are L'Empreinte De L'Ivresse and The Stones of the Threshold (both 1999), and the latter is already an education in how to work field recordings.  So much I haven't heard.