David Maranha / Gabriel Ferrandini – A fonte de Aretusa

david maranha e Gabriel ferrandini

LP, 2011 ed. Mazagran Records (Portugal/Italy) MZ002

mz002_maranha/ ferrandini_2 by mazagran

This Portuguese duo combines organ and percussion in a freeform context that has very little to do with free jazz. Maranha is less interested in playing recognisable chords or melodic runs, preferring to approach it as a mysterious generator of textures. One moment it’s growling like an angry wookie, the next it’s humming and whining like a maxed-out guitar amp. That leaves room for Ferrandini to provide the detail, rolling out a delicate tapestry of sustained percussive activity from drums, cymbals, gongs and chimes. Energy ebbs and flows in billowing gusts but just when it feels as if the storm is about to break, it dissipates back into simmering intensity. Once you learn to stop waiting for a decisive pay-off, the set follows its own perfect logic.
Daniel Spicer
The Wire

Based in Lisbon, Portugal, hammond organist David Maranha and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini have something to say, judging from the live vinyl LP release A Fonte de Aretusa (Mazagran MZ002).
It's 40-some-odd continuous minutes of the duo droning, psychedelisizing and freely traversing a quietly dense soundscape that resembles an expanded explosion of what Mike Ratledge and Robert Wyatt might have done in an early Soft Machine performance. It has that sort of rhythmically open, interestingly distorted organ tone and flippy pulseless drumming that was known to come about for a minute or two in the course of a long jam by the Softs.
Of course there's a bit more to it than that. There is staying power generated betweeen the two. It goes in various directions, creates variations on the variations of the deceptively static overall sound, and never gets boring.
I find myself drawn to this one for reasons that do not have a cognitive logic. It's well mapped spontaneity on a trip without a literal map, a sonic journey that thrives from its simple premises.
Not everyone will be drawn to this one. But I think if you have read the description you will know if it is going to be you. . . or not. Play on players, dream on dreamers.

Grego Applegate Edwards

E' uno dei nostri "protetti" il portoghese David Maranha. Un artista di cui spesso ci siamo occupati e che abbiamo sempre ammirato per la capacità di fondere istanze d'avanguardia con una materia elegantemente rock, come successe per l'ottimo Marches Of the New World o per il successivo Antartica. In quei casi era il rock d'origine velvetiana ad essere sottoposto ad un trattamento di elongazione, quasi di sfaldamento del canone stesso alla base di quella materia oscuramente rock, mediato da una capacità ossessiva figlia del minimalismo meno eterodosso e dello sperimentalismo timbrico più acceso. Ora in A fonte de Aretusa -omaggio al mitico specchio d'acqua siracusano che ha sempre attratto poeti da Pindaro a D'Annunzio, da Milton a Pope- il portoghese unisce le proprie forze con un giovane e talentuoso drummer, Gabriel Ferrandini, e sposta la propria visuale sull'avant-rock più claudicante e oscuro. La formula hammond/batteria non perde in ossessività, sia chiaro, ma l'aggiunta di un drumming cosí vario e pulsante rende la fiumana droney dell'organo di Maranha ancor più libera di indagare i meandri più ossessivi/ossessionati della visuale musicale del portoghese, ma facendola risultare più viva e devastante, ipnotica e cerebrale che in passato.

L'album nasce da un a session live catturata in quel del ZDB di Lisbona e poi suddivisa in due cut, uno per facciata di vinile che mettono in chiaro, se ce ne fosse bisogno, lo spessore del progetto Maranha. Dopotutto, ce lo confessava nello speciale Ad Libitum di un paio di anni fa, la visione sonora del portoghese é un continuum senza soluzione in cui le origini lontane -l'esperienza Osso Exotico, il solo album Circunscrita - non sono poi così lontane.

Sentireascoltare

Stefano Pifferi

Portuguese David Maranha is one of our “protected ones”. An artist that we often review and always respected for his ability to combine avant-garde forms with a sophisticated rock-structure, as in the excellent Marches of the New World or the subsequent Antarctica. In those cases, the”Velvet Underground-rock' was the departure point to a process that resulted in longer pieces and modified the canon of this darken rock matter, that was handled through a obsessive capacity typical of the less heterodox minimalism and of the deepest timbric experimentation.

In this “A Fonte De Aretusa” -a tribute to a mythic reflecting pool in Syracuse that always inspired many poets from Pindaro to D'Annunzio, from Milton to Pope- the Portuguese join his talent with the young and brilliant drummer, Gabriel Ferrandini, and move their vision over the most dark and limping avant rock. The combination hammond/drums do not lose obsessiveness, but the addition of a drumming so rich and pulsating make the droney flood of Maranha's organ even more free to explore the most obsessive twists and turns of his musical inspiration, that is developed as more vital and incisive, hypnotic and cerebral than before.

The record comes from a single live session at the ZDB in Lisbon and after divided in two cuts, one for each side of the vinyl that clarify, even if it was not necessary, the depth of the Maranha's idea. In fact, he explained it in the special issue "Ad Libitum" a few years ago: his musical vision is a continuum without interruption that cames -the “osso exótico” experience and his solo album “circunscrita”- are two faces of the same coin.

Sentireascoltare

Stefano Pifferi

Sur le noir de couverture du 33 tours apparaissent en blanc son titre (A fonte da Aretusa) et les noms des musiciens qu’on y entend : David Maranha (orgue Hammond) et Gabriel Ferrandini (batterie, percussions) – le premier est un élément d’Osso Exótico et de Bowline, le second est membre du RED Trio et partenaire occasionnel de Rodrigo Amado.

Souvenir d’un des concerts que Maranha et Ferrandini ont donnés ensemble depuis 2010, A fonte da Aretusa tremble puis oscille sous les effets d’un orgue à drone et de coups donnés au loin sur un kit de batterie. L’exercice est de domptage : Ferrandini claquant sec pour ramener Maranha sur ligne droite.

Comme attendu, l’opposition affichée mène au grondement : la vingtaine de minutes de la seconde face augmentant d’un peu de noise l’exercice instrumental qui balançait jusque-là entre ambient inquiète et post-rock dernier. Mais à la sortie, voici Maranha recadré : le drone fin dans lequel il a trouvé refuge est ainsi de conclusion. 

Le son du grisly

Guillaume Belhomme

Latest collaboration of the acclaimed minimalist portuguese musician David Maranha with the talented free-form drummer Gabriel Ferrandini in a 42 minutes of a virulent organ+drums out-jazz drone improvisation. “A fonte de Aretusa” is the convergence between the legendary organist David Maranha and the free-form young revelation drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. Based in Lisbon, Portugal this duo started in 2010, with regular rehearsals and concerts that lead to this first album that captures a bloody free live act where the music is pulsing and vibrating over a droning flow of sound. 42 minutes (here divided in two, due to vinyl restrictions)  of a massive attack to the listener among free percussive frames and brutal organic drone merging together into a powerful and permanent movement of vivid music captured in one of their first live performances at ZDB venue.

Portuguese composer David Maranha has always had an ear for knotty, unlikely textures, combinations of timbre of timbre that raise the eyebrow and pucker the mouth. Previous releases have seen him match unorthodox instrumental combinations with a love of steady state persistence. His brittle, bonescraping minimalism faintly nods to the likes of Phill Niblock or Arnold Dreyblatt but remains essentially Maranha’s own. Drummer Gabriel Ferrandini mixes extremes of space, density, momentum and gesture in his thoughtful dialogues with Maranha organ, always displaying impeccable taste and timing.
Fabio Carboni
Soundohm

D'un côté David Maranha à l'orgue hammond, de l'autre Gabriel Ferrandini à la batterie et percussion. Duo enregistré live au ZDB de Lisbonne en novembre 2010. Long mouvement interrompu par le changement de face d'un flux de vibrations free et hypnotique. Cela s'inscrit parfaitement dans le travail de David Maranha et ravira autant les amateurs de drone que de free !
Metamkine

Osso Exótico - Sablier

patrícia machás, andré maranha, francisco tropa, manuel mota e david maranha
LP+DVD, 2010 ed. Serralves (Portugal) MACS-DVD01 and MACS-LP01

http://www.myspace.com/ossoexotico
  Osso exótico - sablier by davidmaranha
Oustanding new release!! Although with irregular appearances in recent years, Osso Exotico is by far one of the most consistent music projects in Portuguese experimental music. "Sablier" is their ninth album,, and the band includes André e David as well, Francisco Tropa, Patrícia Machás e Manuel Mota. Truly deluxe LP edition, gatefold cover, with and additional DVD.
Fabio Carboni
Soundohm

In a plain virgin, nice cardboard sleeve with a small die cut, we find a LP and a DVD by my all time favorite Portuguese band Osso Exotico. Perhaps Osso Exotico shifted to the back of my memory, seeing David Maranha, at least in the last decade, more and more active as a solo performer and improviser. But 'his' band still exists and consists of his brother Andre Maranha, Francisco Tropa, Patricia Machas and Manuel Moto. The website of the label (which seems more like a prestigious art institute) doesn't seem have any information regarding this release, or the performance connected to it. It seems to be some kind of performance, which the band performed a few times, the DVD was shot on March 15th 2009 and the LP recorded a week later. I started with the DVD, in which I see two hands with paint or chalk performing some kind of action painting, but almost in slow motion. It also seems if the sounds of the underground on which this action is performed, is amplified. Slowly it is revealed
what the underground is and what the objects are, which are in the hands. I won't spoil that. There is also music in the background, organ perhaps, guitar maybe, but it stays in the background, and seems to be filling in the gaps. On the one sided LP the music is more in balance with the action, which involves, it seems, the same action but here the music is more upfront, which is quite nice. A similar, minimal approach which regards to organs and guitar, as well as the scrapping of the surface. The music is very gentle, unlike some of the more demanding solo music of David Maranha (which is more like Velvet Underground), and also, it seems, more loosely improvised than some of the more tighter composed pieces of the older Osso Exotico. Throughout however, in all its briefness (two pieces of twenty minutes), a more than excellent product. Osso Exotico never lets me down.
Frans de Waard
Vital Weekly

Forget "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and "Savoy Truffle" – this is the white album that's been getting the airplay round these parts recently. Not just a single-sided LP either, but also a DVD, which explains the curious instrumentation: André Maranha and Francisco Tropa "play" bottles and sand, Patrícia Machás is on copper pot, Manuel Mota is on electric guitar and OE founding father (has it really been 21 years?) David Maranha is organ. The strange haphazard creaks and cracks come from the bottles being rolled sideways across grains of sand on a hard (amplified?) surface – though unless you pop the DVD in and see how it's done you'd probably never guess – its austere friction recalls Raymond Dijkstra's work, but unlike his stuff this is eminently listenable. Asssuming, that is, you feel at home in the murky twilight of, say, Miles Davis's "He Loved Him Madly", or the numerous Loren Connors outings that particular piece inspired. Delicate, haunting, mysterious stuff.
Dan Warburton
The Paris Transatlantic Magazine

500 copie per il nuovo álbum degli Osso Exótico di David (organo) e André Maranha (sabbia e bottiglia) con Francisco Tropa (sabbia e bottiglia), Patrícia Machás (bicchiere di rame) e Manuel Mota (chitarra elettrica). Un’uscita originale com un folder bianco immacolato in ogni sua parte - a eccezione di una minuscola indicazione di responsabilità – che contiene un DVD e un LP inciso in un solo lato, il primo registrato il 15 marzo 2009, il secondo una settimana più tardi. Anche la strumentazione dei cinque esula dall’usuale, come già indicato; la lunga improvvisazione dell’LP è realizzata su una distesa di suoni minimali e ovattati forniti dai due strumenti ‘classici’ (la chitarra di Mota è come sempre una meraviglia assoluta) sopra i quali si muovono i rumorismi accidentali, i colpi, i movimenti di bottiglia, sabbia, bicchiere. Gli stessi strumenti ‘organici’ sono gli attori principali del DVD, che svela quindi la natura dei rumori presenti nell’LP: il semplice rotolare dei vetri sui granelli, l’accarezzamento con le mani, ogni piccolo movimento crea suoni che si accostano al resto. Operazione squisitamente concettuale (il DVD è a camera fissa e con unici protagonisti gli oggetti e le mani), “Sablier” ha comunque valore anche dal punto di vista strettamente sonoro.
Stefano I. Bianchi
Blow Up Magazine

Formados em 1989, na altura com André e David Maranha, Bernardo Devlin e António Forte, os Osso Exótico editaram até ao momento oito álbuns. Embora com aparições irregulares nos últimos anos (principalmente em actuações ao vivo), mantêm-se como um dos projectos mais duradouros e consequentes na música experimental portuguesa. “Sablier” é o nono álbum e é uma peça ensaiada ao longo do ano passado com o propósito desta edição para Serralves, com formação constituída por André e David, Francisco Tropa, Patrícia Machás e Manuel Mota. Ganha maior relevância ouvida ao vivo, pelo trabalho percurssivo de André Maranha e Francisco Tropa, conseguido apenas pelo deslizar de uma garrafa de vidro sobre grãos (o som do vinil está óptimo e dá uma dimensão incrível a este trabalho). Sendo impossível de o fazer em casa, o DVD capta bem a experiência e é essencial para compreender e usufruir a peça.
Pedro Santos
Flur

David Maranha - Antarctica

david maranha, riccardo dillon wanke, joão milagre, stefano pilia, patrícia machás e afonso simões
LP, 2010 ed. Roaratorio (USA) ROAR 18 LP
http://www.myspace.com/ossoexotico

david maranha - antarctica by davidmaranha

Record of the year (2010) by the charts of The Wire, Dusted and Blow Up

David Maranha is a luminary of the Portuguese underground. The two tracks of Antarctica fall into the space between dirge and drone opened up by the Velvet Underground and Tony Conrad’s recordings with Faust. The drums of Afonso Simões and tambourine of Patrícia Machás provide the solemn beat, slow and heavy as an execucion procession, over which Maranha’s violin and Riccardo Dillon Wanke’s guitar build a steel-walled wail. They enclose the sound in a bleak coruscating drone anchored by the leaden bass of João Milagre or Stefano Pilia (side A and Side B respectively). Favouring intensity over sheer volume, Maranha and co achieve a focused minimalism that riff based drone rockers aspire to but cannot reach.
Nick Southgate
The Wire

The new Maranha’s album is advertised as a continuation of the magnificent "March of the New World" published three years ago, and indeed the points of contact are many though the band is not the same. From the previous line-up remains only David Maranha (organ, violin) and João Milagre (bass on side A), joined here by Stefano Pilia (bass on the second side), Riccardo Dillon Wanke (electric guitar), Patricia Machás (tambourine) and Afonso Simões (drums). The music is also overwhelming: two long pieces in which the neominimalism distinctive of the author are combined with a strong, obsessive-suffering rock feeling brings inevitably to memory "venus in furs" of Velvet Underground, and even La Monte Young or Tony Conrad that delineated with Faust "Outside the dream syndicate".
Subtle variations are present on both tracks of the album: the battery propagates a slow and mournful 4/4, a bubbling sailing organ, a dissonant violin that draws, extends and expands repeated cycles; a sound that surrounds and deceives the senses reaching the heart with movements of hopeless nostalgia (splendid work on bass and guitar by Pilia and Wanke on side B, a true masterpiece) that outline scenarios of static ice, loneliness - bright white. Hurry up, it's an edition of only 300 copies! (8)
Stefano I. Bianchi
Blow Up

O novo álbum de Maranha é anunciado como a continuação do magnífico "marches of the new world" editado há três anos, e com efeito os pontos de contacto são muitos embora a formação não seja a mesma. Da formação anterior resta apenas David Maranha (órgão e violino) e João Milagre (baixo no lado a), aos quais se juntam Stefano Pilia (baixo no segundo lado), Riccardo Dillon Wanke (guitarra eléctrica), Patrícia Machás (pandeireta) e Afonso Simões (bateria). A música é igualmente formidável: dois longos temas nos quais o neominimalismo típico do autor se combinam com um forte, obsessivo e sofrido sentimento rock que nos traz inevitavelmente à memoria "venus in furs" dos Velvet Underground, e ainda La Monte Young ou Tony Conrad que com os Faust delinearam "Outside the dream syndicate".
São subtis as variações de ambas as faixas do álbum: a bateria que propaga um 4/4 lento e fúnebre, o orgão que navega e borbulha, o violino dissonante que desenha, estende e amplia insistentes ciclos; um som que envolve e ilude os sentidos atingindo ao coração com movimentos de irremediável nostalgia (esplêndido o trabalho de Pilia no baixo e a guitarra de Wanke no lado b, uma verdadeira obra-prima) que delineiam cenários de gelo imóvel, solidão - branquíssimos. Despachem-se, é uma edição de apenas 300 cópias! (8)
Stefano I. Bianchi
Blow Up

A limited LP of which I sadly only got a digital version of, but by exception I am accepting this. Partly because I know David Maranha for a long time, having reviewed a lot of his work, which I like a lot, and partly to tell about the great solo performance he gave a while back in Extrapool, here in Nijmegen. Sitting behind his organ he played power chords at full volume, for maybe, forty minutes. It could have easily been an hour, and wasn't easily digested by some, save me and a few others. Here he assembled a group, with himself on organ and violin, Riccardo Dillon Wanke on electric guitar, Patricia Machas on tambourine, Afonso Simoes on drums, Joao Milagre and Stefano Pilia (each on one side with the bass). I heard this one extensively yesterday, but today I started with some ancient popmusic and when that record was over, I simply thought some other popmusic would come in. Oh yes, was that Nico? Or perhaps Velvet Underground's 'Venus In Furs'? But hold on, I never had that in
my
playlist. Oh its Maranha and his crew. The start is very much the same, but then what ever comes next is more like Faust's early drone rock. Pounding drums, glissandi on the guitar, tambourine and bass pinning the lines down. Its a great record, especially if you were too young for the early Faust, or even going back further down the road: LaMonte Young's Theatre Of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad or even Glass's early electric violin piece. Two slabs of excellent minimal music that breathe sixties all over. (FdW)
Frans de Waard
Vital Weekly

Portuguese multi-instrumentalist and composer David Maranha isn't exactly well-known in the States, though his work in drone-rock ensemble Osso Exótico has spanned the better part of twenty years. Cue Minneapolis's Roaratorio (Paul Metzger, Pauline Oliveros, and Joe McPhee) to bring a snippet of Maranha's work to broader attention. Maranha's violin and organ are joined by guitarist Riccardo Dillon Wanke, drummer Alfonso Simões, percussionist Patricia Machás and bassists João Milagre and Stefano Pilia on two variants on the Antarctica theme, each taking up a side of this beautifully rendered silkscreen-jacket LP. Antarctica is a plodding funereal march, drums and tambourine in lockstep as guitar feedback and violin saw and moan over the top. But this music isn't nearly as harsh as a John Cale or Angus MacLise minimal piece, despite some similarities; the edges are just rounded enough to set it apart from the harsh caterwaul of 1960s New York minimalism. Perhaps it's a geographic thing, too, and the Mediterranean approach to drone music has a more delicate disposition, enveloping rather than confrontational, a slow sunrise rather than a sonic slab; things get positively rocking by the second side of this excellent and no-frills recording.
Clifford Allen
Paris Transatlantic Magazine

David Maranha’s recordings stretch back over 20 years with the Portuguese avant trio Osso Exótico, as well as collaborations with Z’ev and Minit. A followup to Marches Of The New World (2007), Antarctica is made up of two side-long excursions into monolithic drone-rock. In the vein of Tony Conrad & Faust, “Venus In Furs,” La Monte Young and Terry Riley, Maranha’s ensemble is driven by keyboards, strings, and hypnotized-heartbeat percussion. Like the great white expanse of the titular continent, it can be taken in simply as a glorious wash of sound; listen to it closely, however, and you’ll hear the smallest details jump out in high relief: a feather can move a mountain. An edition of 300 copies in silkscreened covers. Digital download coupon included.
James Lindbloom
Press Release

Monolithic new ensemble recording led by organist/violinist David Maranha a key player in the contemporary Portugese underground alongside Manuel Mota, Margarida Garcia et al. Featuring Riccardo Dillon Wanke on electric guitar, Joao Milagre and Stefano Pilia on bass, Patricia Machas on tambourine and Afonso Simoes on drums, Antartica consists of two sidelong works based on the blueprint of Tony Conrad and Faust’s martial minimalist classic, Outside The Dream Syndicate with heavens of organ, strings and percussion crashing peak after flatlined peak. Edition of 300 copies with silkscreened sleeves and download coupon.
David Keenan
Volcanic Tongue

This LP sounds great. The keening violin nicely shorts out most higher thought, the buzzing organ evaporates the rest, and the music’s stolid trudge will lure your pulse into locked step. The textures are raw, the sound hypnotic, the effect nicely time-stopping.
Bill Meyer
Dusted

Primeiro com os Osso Exótico, a solo, e mais recentemente com os Curia, David Maranha é seguramente um dos músicos portugueses mais importantes nos últimos vinte anos. “Antarctica” é um seguimento natural de “Marches Of The New World”, um dos grandes discos editados em Portugal na década passada. Segue portanto uma linhagem de drone-rock, mas enquanto “Marches” soava a um disco de maior progressão, “Antarctica” é mais estático e de pequenas nuances. Da escola de Tony Conrad, La Monte Young e Terry Riley, os dois lados do LP soam a mantras que se retêm em loop mental durante mais tempo do que a sua duração. Há uma vertente quase interminável nestes dois actos, bem demonstrada no concerto de apresentação deste disco há umas semanas na Zé dos Bois. Espécie de actos contínuos que vale a pena absorver dentro e fora da música. Edição limitada e numerada a 300 exemplares.
Pedro Santos
Flur

Arriva, a tre anni di distanza dal precedente “Marches Of The New World”, il nuovo disco di David Maranha, tra i rappresentanti più in vista nel campo del neo-minimalismo.
Con un occhio puntato verso le esperienze fondamentali del Teatro della Musica Eterna, di Tony Conrad e, va da sé, dei Velvet Underground, il musicista portoghese offre, in quaranta minuti e rotti, altri saggi della sua visione sonora. Due lunghe tracce (venti minuti ciascuna) dove organo, violino, basso (il “nostro” Stefano Pilia), tambourine, chitarra e batteria imbastiscono avvolgenti ipnosi dal cuore tetro e dall’anima angosciata.
I due brani si assomigliano moltissimo: portamento depresso della batteria, violino intento ad arabescare con ispide dissonanze la marea montante di algida rassegnazione, organo che scivola sornione e onnipresente, basso e chitarra che completano il quadro con tocchi sparsi, sfumature sommesse, accenti sfuggenti. Esperienza di abbandono, come al solito. Ma “Antarctica”, con il suo sottotesto di solitudine e malinconia, sembra soltanto un modo come un altro per consentire a Maranha di ripresentarsi sulle scene.
Poco da dire, insomma, anche se i fan gradiranno, ne sono sicuro.
Francesco Nunziata
Ondarock

David Maranha torna al suo solo-project in cui unisce la fascinazione per il minimalismo e l’indubbio retroterra rock. Un po’ come succedeva per Marches Of The New World, di cui questo Antarctica è ideale prosecuzione, le lande toccate dal compositore portoghese sono quelle di confine tra i “generi” citati sopra: da un lato il minimalismo più rock-oriented che prende le mosse dal Dream Syndicate di LaMonte Young, passa per Terry Riley e arriva all’Outside The Dream Syndicate della premiata ditta Conrad/Faust; dall’altro l’insanabile amore per i Velvet più dilatati e trancey, tutti pelle, depravazioni e reiterazione.
Ad accompagnare Maranha (a organo e violino) troviamo Riccardo Dillon Wanke alla chitarra elettrica, Joao Milagre e Stefano Pilia al basso, Patricia Machàs al tambourine e Afonso Simoes alla batteria. Dunque una grande band d’appoggio dalla notevole coesione e forza evocativa, per un suono reiterato che non si limita a disegnare nuovi paesaggi sonori nella coscienza alterata dell’ascoltatore, ma si offre corposo e ipnotico come non mai.
Meritoria, in questo senso, la scelta del vinile: nelle facciate del disco le due suite untitled da 20 minuti l’una spalmano la catalessi sonora su un tempo in apparenza immoto, ma in cui le minime variazioni cromatiche sprigionano una agonizzante e monolitica versione drone-rock dell’ottimo e screziato predecessore.
Lande distanti, malinconicamente solitarie e gelide vengono evocate attraverso un ossessivo lavorio di cesello sui timbri di violino, organo e chitarre che pone Maranha ai vertici del genere per ricercatezza e risultati.
Stefano Pifferi
Sentireascoltare


O tão aguardado segundo álbum…
David Maranha é um dos músicos mais interessantes do experimentalismo português. Muitos de vocês estão neste momento a ter o primeiro contacto com o seu nome pois é daqueles que não dá nas vistas, a música fala por si. Marches of the New World (2007) foi o primeiro disco em nome próprio (não entender como a solo) depois de nos oitentas ter iniciado uma marcha brilhante com os Osso Exótico. Também faz parte de projectos como os Curia e inclusive já colaborou com Z'EV ou Ben Frost mas na minha opinião o seu auge musical encontra-se nestas explorações hipnóticas. Drone de topo, estes temas são viagens imperdíveis, são das melhores coisas que alguma vez se fez neste canto à beira-mar.
Antarctica, o segundo, sai hoje via Roaratorio que é casa de mestres como Joe McPhee, Ben Chasny ou Corsano e é aqui que quero chegar: malta do sul, se aí estivesse não perdia este momento por nada deste mundo. Antarctica é hoje apresentado no palco da ZDB pelo próprio Maranha, Bernardo Devlin, Manuel Mota, Riccardo Wanke e Afonso Simões.
André Mendes
Amplificasom

Faz sentido que "Antarctica" seja editado pela Roaratorio, editora norte-americana que já lançou discos de gente como Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), Vibracathedral Orchestra, autores de longas "jams" hipnóticas e psicadélicas, e Pauline Oliveros, experimentalista interessada em atributos do som como a reverberação e a ressonância. Faz sentido porque "Antarctica" está algures entre o lado mais rock e o mais "académico", à falta de melhor expressão, da música experimental.
Neste disco, Maranha, que pertence aos Osso Exótico, volta ao território de "Marches of the New World". Editado em vinil, com uma peça de cada lado, "Antarctica" pode mesmo ser visto como uma sequela daquele disco de 2007.
A colaboração de Tony Conrad com os Faust e os Velvet Underground quando se desligavam das canções e se entregavam ao transe continuam a ser pontos de referência, algo sobretudo visível no lado A. Há um violino aos círculos, que remete para "Venus in Furs" dos Velvet, sobre o ruminar do órgão, a bateria e a pandeireta, precisas e repetitivas, como o bater do coração. Estas características mantêm-se no lado B, em que frases de órgão infinitas ganham preponderância no embalo hipnótico.
A formação de luxo, composta por Maranha (órgão e violino), Riccardo Dillon Wanke (guitarra eléctrica), João Milagre e Stefano Pilia (baixo, no lado A e B, respectivamente), Afonso Simões (bateria) e Patrícia Machás (pandeireta), soube criar uma música que acumula, em vez de explodir, que se enrola sobre si mesma, na qual que as variações estão, sobretudo, nos detalhes e no espaço que o colectivo dá para um dado instrumento num dado momento.
Pela proximidade estética, é inevitável a comparação com "Marches of the New World", disco brilhante que este não ultrapassa. "Antarctica" é, contudo, um território que vale a pena explorar: é música para respirar e absorver, o que, nestes tempos agitados, não é pouco.
Pedro Rios
Ípsilon

Hipnose por via da repetição que transparece em toda a plenitude nesse magnífico corpo de obra de David Maranha (casos mais recentes em Marches of the New World ou na mítica actuação no Out.fest em 2008). Em apresentação ao novíssimo Antartica e fazendo-se acompanhar por um dream team das músicas mais livres em Portugal, que importa referenciar. Maranha, Bernardo Devlin e Ricardo Wanke nos teclados, Afonso Simões na bateria e Manuel Mota numa surpreendente prestação no baixo (alguém disse que se tornou automaticamente o melhor baixista da actualidade, e não andou muito distante da verdade). Ao início a mistura estava estranha, com a secção rítmica a sobrepor-se aos drones de teclado para um sentimento de incompletude. Ao longo da actuação, o colosso foi-se compondo, com Maranha a conduzir as operações para ligeiros devaneios de um activo Wanke e a maior subtileza de Devlin. Alicerçados na batida ritualista/marcial de Simões e numa nota de baixo incessante em pequenas variações de grande impacto corpóreo. Peça longa, rastejava no éter sem nunca se deter em fórmulas, numa transversalidade entre o minimalismo de La Monte Young ou Terry Riley, o peso do metal mais esotérico ou as viagens cósmicas do Kraut, numa singular identidade Maranha que há muito se lhe reconhece. E reverencia com justiça.
Bruno Silva
Bodyspace

Antarctica não é o sobressalto chamado Marches of The New Word. Apresenta outra forma, outra natureza. Para já, trata-se de um vinil feito de dois temas com estruturas e tempos muito semelhantes. A outra razão é de ordem estética: certa experimentação que caracterizou o rock ouve-se agora mais nítida. Seria difícil, portanto, escutar os veios sonoros (e a diversidade) que caracterizaram o primeiro disco a solo de David Maranha: não há faixas como “Oil Crows” ou “Virgins Visons” em Antarctica.
O que domina é a repetição, o trabalho musical do e com o órgão Hammond sobre os outros instrumentos. Os dois temas – sem título, ambos de 20 minutos – são como blocos sonoros alimentadas pelo ritmo. Neste movimento, cada instrumento tem o (seu) grande plano, a sua acção. A pandeireta torna o ambiente mais chão ou “lírico”; o violino colore a constância da música; os acordes da guitarra ameaçam criar algo próximo da linguagem do rock.
O rock. Pois é o rock que respira em Antárctica. Não o convencional, mas o heterodoxo, de um respeitável linhagem que começa nos Velvets e arriba algures entre os No Neck Blues Band e os Jackie-O Motherfucker (dos primeiros anos). Música do passado ao presente, ligada pelas possibilidades do órgão Hammond. Nem por acaso, o disco tem edição da Roaratorio, selo americano que lançou coisas de Ben Chasny, Knife World e Vibracathedral Orchestra, bem como de compositores mais “experimentais”. Um encontro feliz e que demonstra a versatilidade da música de David Maranha sem a limitar a classificações e categorias.
Menção final para a mão cheia de colaboradores (a maioria inéditos): Afonso Simões, Patrícia Machás, Ricardo Dillon Wanke, João Milagre, Stefano Pilia. Porque esta música também nasce de uma comunidade.
José Marmeleira
Time Out

Curia II - 15th December 2007 - Edição Limitada

Afonso Simões, David maranha, Manuel Mota e Margarida Garcia
LP, 2009 ed. Headlights (Portugal) LPH12
http://www.myspace.com/curiapalace
curia - paris by davidmaranha
Beautiful new hand-numbered edition of 100 copies private press LP in black printed wraparound sleeves from a group that brings together the cream of the Portuguese underground, with both Manuel Mota and Margardia Garcia on electric guitars, David Maranha on organ and Afonso Simoes on drums. This is free music that draws inspiration equally from the gradual projection style of Masayuki Takayanagi’s New Direction Unit, the communal afro-futurism of the Sun Ra Arkestra, St Louis’ Black Artists Group and the AACM big bands, wastoid wah heavy psychedelic freeform and the keyboard and F/X funk swamp of the late Miles Davis groups, Love Cry Want et al. Mota’s recent experiments with wah-wah have launched his solo guitar thought into a whole new rock/jazz zone but until now there has been virtually nada in terms of audio documentation. The pairing with Garcia’s heavy bottom end bowing and sudden sputtering tone explosions is an absolute beauty, with Garcia providing a monstrous backbone from which Mota shoots spurts of quicksilver electricity that explode like fireworks all over Maranha’s gorgeous organ patterns. A fantastic release from a bunch of major thinkers who shoot holes in easy free music strategies. Highly recommended.
David Keenan
Volcanic Tongue

Afonso Simões, David Maranha, Margarida Garcia e Manuel Mota formam os Curia. É na editora deste último, a Headlights, que sai o seu segundo registo, depois da estreia muito bem sucedida na Fire Museum com “Curia”, em inícios de 2008. “II – 15th December 2007″ é um registo ao vivo, não editado (apenas com o corte para a troca de lado do vinil), de um projecto que une alguns dos melhores nomes da música improvisada – e não só – portuguesa. O que aqui se encontra é, de facto, o melhor destes mundos: a candura de Margarida, a voz única de Mota, o controlo, domínio e espaço de Afonso e os vôos contínuos no órgão de David Maranha. Como aqui é registado, há uma harmonia incrível quando os quatro se encontram na mesma sala. Uma espécie de compromisso próximo de Morton Feldman ou William Basinski, sem o objectivo de uma forma concreta, mas algo que se deixa respirar e deseja que respire. Algo espiritual sem as cenas new age. Edição limitada a 100 cópias.
Flur

dru

David maranha, Manuel Mota e Riccardo Dillon wanke
CD, 2008 ed. Headlights (Portugal) CDH10
http://www.myspace.com/granddru
  Excerpt 2 Nov 2008 2 by davidmaranha
Não é de estranhar que os Dru lancem o seu disco de estreia com pouco mais de dois meses volvidos sobre a conversa que fundaria o trio.
"L'Aiguille", que é apresentado no próximo dia 10 no lisboeta Maxime, é resultado da cumplicidade entre David Maranha (dos Osso Exótico), Manuel Mota e Riccardo Dillon Wanke (Maranha e Mota, por exemplo, partilham outro projecto, os Curia). As improvisações que deram origem a "L'Aiguille" são enformadas por conversas prévias, que dão à música, gravada em apenas uma semana, uma linha coerente e extremamente focada. As sete peças viajam pacientemente por entre fios do órgão Hammond de Maranha (que parece ruminar constantemente) e do piano eléctrico de Wanke e evocações de baladas jazz pela guitarra de Manuel Mota, a meio caminho entre a melodia e a desconstrução. Elíptica, a música dos Dru decorre rente à superfície, sem picos de intensidade e praticamente sem tensão, tornando-se interessante pelos detalhes e texturas que se vão desenhando nas camadas de som. Na sexta peça, em que os músicos investem mais na criação de dinâmicas, impressiona a fluidez dos três discursos, que se encaixam sem atropelos. "L'Aiguille" é mais um sinal da boa saúde da música experimental portuguesa, que nos últimos anos tem dado muitos motivos para sorrir.
Pedro Rios
ípsilon 5-12-2008

Curia

Afonso Simões, David maranha, Manuel Mota e Margarida Garcia

CD, 2007 ed. Fire Museum (USA) FM15

http://www.myspace.com/curiapalace
  Fire Museum 4 Maio 2007 Curia by davidmaranha 

"Fire Museum Records presents the eponymous debut release by the Portuguese molten music masters, Curia. Forged in the fertile grounds of the Lisbon music underground, each member an established musician in their own right, what each brings to the new project is a commitment to sonic exploration that builds on their individual histories while creating a collective identity that is uniquely Curia. The alchemy here is stunning, as bowed and wah guitars, Hammond organ and percussion intertwine and fade out to create a soundscape that is not only unique, but a high point for the fascinating Portuguese experimental music scene (Special guest on track 3: Helena Espvall). David Maranha: started his work in music in 1986, both solo and with the group Osso Exótico. Manuel Mota: from the late '80s to 1997 studied and experimented with prepared guitar (mainly acoustic) and focused his work on drone music; influenced by Phill Niblock and La Monte Young. Margarida Garcia: Margarida collaborates regularly with Manuel Mota. Afonso Simões: he has performed with the likes of Mayo Thompson, Rafael Toral, Helena Espvall, and Mean Motion."
Steven Tobin, press release

Always providing for space for each other while still bringing the heat poignantly, the members of the Curia manage to walk that fine line between under and over playing, with deliberate indulgence, creating a scape as odd and alien that is difficult to box. With various outstanding personal works, the members of curia, Afonso Simões, David Maranha, Manuel Mota and Margarida Garcia, share a common ground- the lisbon´s underground- but each has a very personal history and their music clearly reflects that - everyone there feels free to play whatever they like but the result has an unique character even being free from style barriers. Together they shaped a space of continuity and at the same time re-write the territory of their approach to music. Formed in February of 2007, their sound comes through the layering and gathering of each individual's unique personal language. These cat's work also fruited in two releases in the same year, namely the eponymous curia CD on Fire Museum Records and LP curia II on Ruby Red Records.


Curia could be one of those bands coined with that horrible definition of "supergroup".
Curia´s line-up consists of an all-star quartet of portugal best players in the fields of improvised and free music, including of Manuel Mota, David Maranha (also Osso Exótico and Organ Eye), Margarida Garcia and Afonso Simões (half of the free-rock group Fish & Sheep). Furthermore there´s Helena Espvall ( from the band Espers ) making a punctual apparition as a guest .

There´s not one linear definition of what this music might be : only a sense of urge and dialogue that transcends the mundane ground. Having not found a proper definition to describe this music one should focus on what really matters, and that is sound. It´s a music of ghosts, of evocation, constantly habited with a swirling and often perverse sense of crescendo, going from some really abrasive sonic explorations to atmospheric passages of pure psychedelia. The words "form" and "regularity" have new meanings in Curia´s lexical, still one can´t deny there´s a kind cohesion , a clearly noticeable guideline that runs trough all the music.

What could easily turn into a battles of egos is instead a statement of freedom, mutual respect and creativity.
Here as the cliché goes the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts. No. Here the whole it´s something dazzling and new.
O Bom Garfo


Min kännedom om portugisisk musik har under lång tid inte sträckt sig mycket längre än till minimalisten Rafael Toral. Under senare år har dock en våg av underjordisk aktivitet fullkomligt sköljt ut över världen på såväl små inhemska bolag som utländska dito. Även om det här är Curias debutskiva är bandets medlemmar i allra högsta grad delaktiga i denna utveckling då de såväl solo som i andra konstellationer har bidragit till scenens vitalitet och goda renommé.

David Maranha, Manuel Mota, Margarida Garcia och Afonso Simões skapar som Curia en sorts genreöverskridande improvisationer som på det stora hela är lågmälda i sitt uttryck men som likväl är förhållandevis svårforcerade. Bearbetade gitarrljud, genomskärande övertoner och bisarra bakgrundsljud möter släpande orgelfigurer och fragmentarisk percussion i en helhet som är krävande men också synnerligen givande. Kanske inte på det där omedelbara sättet utan snarare en känsla som kommer smygande ju mer man tar sig tid att stanna upp och fascineras av alla detaljer och den komplexitet som karaktäriserar denna kvartetts musicerande.

Mats Gustafsson
Sound of Music

Tirando partido da imobilidade da sua plateia, alguém tentava convencer os especados diante de um televisor de que dado território era um deserto. Como quem ensaia um ritual de hipnose, esse alguém gesticulava e repetia sem, sem, sem emparelhando a palavra com cada um dos elementos (casas, hotéis, etc.) que deviam preencher tal área para que não fosse um ermo onde nada se passa. A crer que é longa a distância entre o suposto deserto e quem apenas ouvir falar acerca do mesmo, não será de todo surpreendente dar conta de que alguns receptores passivos da mensagem possam, na necessidade de ter uma qualquer opinião em vez de nenhuma, consentir que o lugar em questão era, de facto, um vácuo, e isto sem nunca o terem sequer farejado.

Não se conhece a mesma tendência manhosa e ludibriante ao colectivo Curia, cujos integrantes já vão dispensando apresentações, mas confirma-se que também este seu primeiro disco é feito sem evidentes crescendos ou decrescendos, sem aparente necessidade de virtuosismos, sem estruturas imediatamente reconhecíveis nos seus quatro movimentos (é livre, sem ser promíscuo). Conforme as perspectivas, dir-se-ia sobre o trabalho lançado pela Fire Museum que o mesmo obedece às premissas de um protótipo de deserto ou, a partir de um ângulo mais construtivo, à disciplina da música que faz categórico uso da elipse e silêncio. Acontece que, mesmo sem largar ao ar um espectáculo de pirotecnia, Curia consegue arrancar reacções de pasmo por meio do avultado número de fenómenos que produzem, por aproximação (na eminência da fricção), os quatro elementos armazenados em sarcófagos separados: a bateria e percussão de Afonso Simões, o calejado órgão Hammond de David Maranha, a guitarra eléctrica wah de Manuel Mota e a guitarra eléctrica tocada com arco por Margarida Garcia (sendo o violoncelo de Helena Espvall, parte dos Espers, o quinto elemento convidado para valiosa participação pontual).

Sendo também por si só um novo mundo paralelo, Curia, ergue-se naturalmente sobre estratos que frisam as capacidades dos executantes, em vez de anulá-las por batalha de sobrevivência entre egos. Em certa medida, é disco onde a peregrinação dos instrumentos favorece um acompanhamento igualmente peregrino de quem escuta (mais abençoado, se movido por uma fé cega). Singra também enquanto conjunto de testemunhos registados no epicentro exacto de um diversificado sismo conspirado por quatro células que simularam um adormecimento faquir, mas que sorrateiramente foram palmilhando toda a dimensão dos seus respectivos espectros sonoros e, por arrasto, a avultada quantidade de recursos que esses oferecem, mais nitidamente quando respeitada a peculiar logística Curia.

Afinal, a progressão dos Curia desenvolve-se um pouco como a que separava Indiana Jones do Santo Graal n’A Grande Cruzada: sucede-se atenta ao soletrar pedonal das coordenadas que os seus membros têm como religiosas (tal como Indy tentava a palavra Jeová/Iehova) e manifesta-se mais repleta de ideias espontâneas quando sente o seu equilíbrio ameaçado (um pouco como o aventureiro, quando pisava em falso). Curia é disco de revelações a ter por perto daqui em diante. A estagnação é a doença, eles são a Curia.

Miguel Arsénio
bodyspace 08/01/2008

A música experimental portuguesa continua a dar cartas. Lá fora, cá dentro, em registo discográfico ou ao vivo. Não há grandes mistérios por trás deste facto. Apenas a qualidade do trabalho de uma série razoável de artistas que, de forma natural e teimosa, se limitam a tocar música. David Maranha, Manuel Mota, Margarida Garcia e Afonso Simões fazem parte desse conjunto mais ou menos informal, mas quem, de facto, quiser confirmar esta asserção não deve perder o concerto que os reúne no Maxime, sob a forma do quarteto baptizado com o nome de Curia.

O mote é a apresentação do homónimo disco de estreia (com a edição portuguesa da Ruby Red e nos Estados Unidos pela Fire Museum Records) e vale, definitivamente, a deslocação. Os quatro temas de Curia são um encontro fantástico de timbres, ritmos, frases, ruídos e pausas que insinuam conversas com as histórias e as linguagens do jazz, do rock, do blues e da música improvisada, sem que umas se imponham às outras. Mais: sugere uma dimensão alucinatória que confunde sentidos.

Da guitarra wah de Manuel Mota até ao teclado Hammond de David Maranha (dos Osso Exótico), passando pela bateria de Afonso Simões (dos Phoebus), cada instrumento tem tal força expressiva que deixa ouvir, aqui e ali, a presença de uma voz. Mas isto é o disco. Já o concerto, para lá das histórias e dos delírios sonoros que proporcionará, assinala também o encontro de músicos de diferentes tempos e gerações (Manuel Mota e Margarida Garcia surgiram nos anos 1990, Afonso Martins nesta década e David Maranha há cerca de 20 anos).

Comunicação, portanto. E comunhão. Eis um concerto dos Curia. Na primeira parte actua um duo formado por Barry Weisblat e Patrícia Machás.

José Marmeleira
Time Out, 8 de Janeiro de 2008

Bowline

David maranha &Francesco Dillon
CD, 2007 ed. Sonoris (France) SNS-04

http://www.myspace.com/bowlinelisbon

  bowline by davidmaranha

"Behind Bowline we find the more and more present musician David Maranha, who was once best known as Osso Exotico, and these days also works as a solo musician and one Francesco Dillon. He is from Italy and studied the cello. These days he is a member of Alter-Ego (see Vital Weekly 602 for their work with Gavin Bryars) as well as playing with people like Matmos, Pan Sonic and Scanner. A man of many talents. Here too Dillon plays cello, whereas Maranha gets credit for 'hammond organ, violin, vox amplifier (with Francesco cello signal), glass harmonica, tremolo and distortion pedals'. Of the four tracks , the first is the most silent one, taking several minutes to get started. Like with so many other projects of David Maranha, in which ever form it takes, this is a work of minimalism. Of sheer, utter minimalism and what beauty, once again. The careful strumming of various string instruments, the drones added, sparsely of course, from the other instruments. Three short tracks which eventually culminate in the fourth track, which takes up about two-third of the CD and in which the three previous excursions return but glorified. Everything comes together here. If you love Osso Exotico or any of the works Maranha did after that, this is will be a most welcome addition. Also fans of traditional minimal music, especially Lamonte Young will find this a great release, I'm sure of that."
Frans de Waard
Vital, number 605

Bowline is the project of David Maranha joined by Francesco Dillon,italian cellist member of the group Alter Ego.The first thing that comes to mind is: if you love harsh and painful minimalism, made up of long eternal-like phrases, which are typical of the portuguese musician, run to buy this Bowline release because the two musicians, together,give us 30 minutes of music that you won’t forget.
With Dillon on the cello, and Maranha on hammond,violin,glassharmonica and effects, more than just creating a dialogue , they mix ,melt and create an austere sound,almost religious, wich tastes like late autumn ,like rocks and stones,like dust fallen from an ancient era.
Imprisoned in this digital grooves are ecstatic notes, constantly pelting down (hammering) in long, frightening spirals, only now and then illuminated by flashes of gentle light, and in the last track,22 minutes wich in reality represent the whole album,we reach the highest pinnacles of absolute beauty

We hope the project will continue, because Bowline, despite its brevity and its many high moments, leaves still the desire for more.
Blow Up


After three years of silence, Sonoris is back in 2007 with two releases: a Kozo Inada’s work and this CD, titled “Bowline” as well as those who conceived it.
Bowline is a duo of musicians: David Maranha (Osso Exótico, plus a soloist activity) who plays hammond organ, violin and electronics whereas Francesco Dillon (firstly member of Alter Ego group) deals with the cello.
Based on four tracks, it's a work of absolute uniformity and simplicity (these elements make it beautiful) that would not disfigure if compared with other illustrious pieces of minimalistic tradition.
The first three tracks are linked in a continuous progression, dominated by a melodic flow, that generates a crepuscular atmosphere. The fourth is almost similar, but more structured, with a variety of resonant textures and incidental drones, hypnotic fluctuations, cello vibrations.
Undoubtedly a successful interaction between these two artists.

Formation réunissant Francisco Dillon (violoncelle) et David Maranha (orgue Hammond, violon, électroniques et traitement du signal), Bowline livre avec cet album éponyme quatre pièces d’un minimalisme exquis, propre à ravir les amateurs de l’école new yorkaise, Lamonte Young en particulier. Il faut dire que Dillon, membre d’Alter-Ego, a déjà collaboré avec Matmos, Pan Sonic, Scanner ou encore Gavin Bryars, tandis que Maranha évolue au sein d’Osso Exotico.
Entre drones, bourdonnements et harmonies évanescentes, le duo joue subtilement de l’accumulation des textures pour aboutir à une réelle puissance portée par un crescendo toute en nuance. Les trois premiers mouvements distillent une atmosphère obsédante atteignant sans ostentation son point culminant dans l’amplitude extatique du dernier. Comme une espèce de ruban de Moëbius à la grâce fragile, Bowline est une véritable réussite signant le retour de l’exigeant label bordelais, qui avait publié le remarquable Piano Suspenso de Maranha.
Ulrich Schnauss
SPIR!T

Bowline è il progetto che vede David Maranha (anche Osso Exotico col fratello) unire le forze conFrancesco Dillon di Alter Ego. Qui la materia si fa latentemente “rock”, reiterando per certi versi quella ossessione velvetiana di Maranha ben evidenziata in Marches Of The New World. Qui però il connubio con Dillon dilata ancor più il raga eterno del portoghese rendendolo più stranito e straniante, accentuando il minimalismo di base verso forme altamente visionarie.

Le tre relativamente brevi tracce in crescendo, le cui minime variazioni passano dalla stasi silente #1 ai riverberi di corde di #3, introducono l’ultima traccia, vero asse portante dell’albo in virtù dei 20 e più minuti di durata. Una incessante ed estatica alternanza tra il violoncello di Dillon e la usuale strumentazione di Maranha (glass harmonica, violino, hammond), un incontro docile e stordente piuttosto che uno scontro aspro che ha il pregio di disegnare diafani paesaggi e spirali ondivaghe di suoni talmente instabili da creare una sorta di trance riduzionista.
Sentireascoltare
Stefano Pifferi

Bowline : Francisco Dillon, violoncelle, et David Maranha, orgue hammond, violon, électroniques et traitement du signal. Le premier joue dans l'ensemble Alter Ego (voir leur travail récent avec Gavin Bryars), le second au sein de Osso Exotico, et de plus en plus actif aujourd'hui sous son nom ou dans d'autres projets (voir catalogue). Encore une fois, il s'agit de minimalisme dans la grande tradition états-unienne, bourdonnements et nuages d'harmoniques, accumulations et textures résonantes, sans nier la puissance du sonore et l'expression du musical.

Metamkine

Organ Eye

eponymous
david maranha, jasmine guffond, patrícia machás e torben tilly
CD/LP, 2007 ed. Staubgold 74 (germany)

http://www.myspace.com/organeye
  Tema2 excerpt MP3 7minutos PROMO Mastered by davidmaranha
Recorded & produced in Lisbon during 2005.
Mastered at Calyx, Berlin 2006

Organ Eye is a supergroup of sorts. Not in a “let´s take the drummer of Yes and team him up with the first keyboarder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and the singer of Foreigner” kind of way, but because it brings two of today´s more interesting drone bands together. Organ Eye consists of Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly of Australia´s Minit and David Maranha and Patricia Machas of Osso Exotíco from Portugal. Their self-titled debut album features two lengthy tracks that are perfectly designed for the also available LP format, each clocking in at just over 20 minutes.

The first tune builds up really slowly. In the beginning the electronic elements prevail. I felt strongly reminded of the recording of a live set from Kendrick McDowell, Christopher Willits and Dan Ambrams from 2001. Clicks and electronically generated hiss form the backbone of the mighty drone lingering in the background and just waiting to be unleashed. In the end, Organ Eye still keep the bottleneck tight, so that the drone can only creep out bit by bit. The result is more ambient than noisy, but certainly not boring at all and well worth listening through its entire 24 minutes. The second track shows some abrasive moments right in its beginning. All the while, it takes a few minutes until you see more clearly in which direction Organ Eye are facing. “Tema #2“ is a big pleasure to listen to. The promo sheet speaks of references to LaMonte Young, Terry Riley and Tony Conrad and on here, those references are hard to overhear. In a classic psychedelic minimalist mode, an organ is played over electronic drones, which take over towards the end of the tune.

While it sometimes seems as if Organ Eye are holding something back, their debut is still drone music at its finest and shows all the elements of a transcendent and meditative exercise. It never sounds like any of the players doesn´t fit in at any certain moment. And in that way, Organ Eye don´t sound like members of two separate groups, but like one entity.
Stephan Bauer (17 April, 2007)
Foxy Digitalis

It’s tempting to view Organ Eye as an electronic-acoustic drone summit. The quartet comprises David Maranha and Patricia Machás of Osso Exótico, a long-lived Portuguese outfit with minimalist tendencies and a fondness for organs and acoustic strings, and New Zealand-born world travelers Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly of Minit, who quite sensibly confine their instrumentation to easily packed electronic gear.

But the production of their collective sound is less important than its arrangement and manipulation. The album features two tracks whose duration in the lower 20s suggests that someone in Organ Eye fondly remembers the LP; there is, in fact, a small vinyl pressing of this record available to those who are well connected and fast acting. Each progresses slowly, and if regarded from a distance seems as blank and unyielding as the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Close listening reveals a different story; this music actually teams with detail, it’s apparent solidity the result of glare thrown off by agitated activity. But the detail comes on slowly, accumulating density like a swiffer plowing across some cat lady’s long-unswept wooden floor. “Tema #1” opens serenely enough, with tiny consonant tones stitched around a swell of bowed piano strings. But then some looped clatter — a cassette deck kicking into action, perhaps? — pokes out of the dronescape and the music banks left and up, ascending towards a big beam of feedback.

On “Tema #2,” the sounds really begin to dance. Overdriven organ and harmonium wheeze in and out of phase with each other like a couple early Terry Riley recordings, around which layers of pixilated sonic glitter flicker like an aura around some celestial body. Like a long look at the sun, the longer you squint, the less clear it all becomes.
By Bill Meyer
Dusted

The term “drone” has really become passé. Now linked to the likes of metal artisans such as Sunn O))) and Earth, it is now almost synonymous with massive sustained guitar riffs and overly processed vocals. Organ Eye, a four-person improvisation group featuring members of Portugal’s Osso Exotico and New Zealand’s Minit are also in the business of doing drone, but more in the classic sense. You won’t find any Sunn amps or smashed guitars here, but you will find classic Spacemen 3 guitar feedback drones and Velvet Underground inspired violin work.

The band cites the aforementioned VU's "Sister Ray" (17 of the greatest minutes in rock history), Buddhism, and Albert Ayler as some of their major influences, and it’s pretty transparent in their work. It’s drone more in the sense of dwelling in feedback and exploring the nuances of the tape loop as an instrument. The two massive tracks are based on live improvisations, and like the giants of free jazz, the players reflect off each other and create something that sounds like it was carefully planned and choreographed long before any gear was turned on.

"Tema #1" opens like the Spacemen 3 cats, all loops of guitar feedback and odd percussive found sounds here and there. The wall of feedback continues to build throughout the entire work, never really getting into the realms of harsh noise or the like, but does become progressively dissonant as the track wears on. Later, John Cale is channeled through David Maranha's violin work, reminscent of some old record with a banana on the cover. The piece finally ends with gentle electronics slowly fading away.

Where "Tema #1" opened with the organic feel of six strings resonating, "Tema #2" takes the bionic approach and begins with grating high pitched tones, like a telephone call on a busy signal slowly being shredded by a blender. Scrapes and other odd percussive textures are promenant as well, until the electronics build more and more through the first half, to the point that listening becomes difficult (in the “ow my ears are starting to ring” sense) before dropping a few notes in the scale and settling in at a more mid range set of electronic loops and harmonium drone. At the end it creeps up to tinnitus level once again before ending abruptly.

Being that this is drone based (in the La Monte Young sense, not in the black metallist sipping a chai latte sense), it can’t really be deemed “easy” listening. However, the players seem to be a natural fit with each other, and have made an improvisation that just feels natural, and right and leads to a very compelling debut work.
Written by Creaig Dunton 23 April 2007
Brainwashed

Say what you will about the New Zealand-via-Australia duo of Minit, at least they're smart enough to do everything slowly. It took them a several years to follow their debut album, Music, with 2006's Now Right Here; the relatively swift appearance of Organ Eye on its heels is one of 2007's more welcome surprises, all the better for being a new quartet with David Maranha and Patricia Machás of Osso Exótico, Portugal's premiere slow-moving, rarefied drone outfit. Organ Eye wraps the quartet in the cloaking veil of blurred, shape-shifting dronology prevalent among many artists working within their field, but there's something about these performances – perhaps the intimation of chance that comes from their live improvised settings – that transcends the rote-ness of so many of their peers. And while the drone is an underlying structure for "TEMA #1", Minit's oscillating electronics scratch livid patterns in the sidelines, scraping away like bolts of light underneath your eyelids, or etched bursts of denuded filmstock in the hand-crafted films of Stan Brakhage. The quartet work in loosely episodic fashion: "TEMA #1" moves from tentative beginnings to an engorged rush of fizzling noise at about the fourteen minute mark, which recedes into insectile near-silence. This may imply a tension-release structure that's not exactly under-represented in the field of modern improvised electronics, but Organ Eye's attention to texture becomes the scaffold upon which their improvisations build. Or, in the case of "TEMA #2", it becomes the uncarved block around which all manner of rangy, hissing noises skirl. This is a staggeringly confident recording that transcends the genre through its attention to the genre's detail.
Jon Dale
May 2007
Paris Transatlantic Magazine


As guiding hand behind Portugal’s Osso Exótico, David Maranha has long bowed his way towards the heart of “eternal music.” Drawing inspiration from the ’60s experiments that eventually birthed the Velvet Underground, Maranha enlists long-time collaborator Patricia Machás, as well as like-minded New Zealanders Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly, to explore two long, detail-rich drone excursions. While earlier recordings, such as the excellent 2000 release Circunscrita on Namskeio records, delved exclusively into the dense properties of acoustic instruments, Organ Eye open the door to the electronics provided by the NZ invitees. The results are phenomenal. On “Tema #1,” Maranha and Machás’ slowly breathe through their Hammond airways, adding little pockets of violin, drums and bowed piano as time passes. The electronics are so gradual, transparent and integrated that they never really reveal themselves until the piece concludes. “Tema #2,” however, picks up at that spot, with the modem squelch of digital noise transmitting its signal into both the past and future. Building these pieces through improvisation, the players are skilled listeners, preferring to cooperate on completely filling the cavity of listening gracefully rather than overwhelming with over-amplification and feedback.
By Eric Hill
September 2007
Exclaim!

Born out of creative empathy and chance, Organ Eye were formed out of a live triple-bill comprised of David Maranha, Minit and the Staubgold Sound System, that played at the ZDB Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal, at the end of February 2005. With the addition of Patrícia Machás, a member of Osso Exótico alongside Maranha, the quartet that now forms Organ Eye was completed. The recording of this eponymous debut album then took place in March and December of 2006. A cumulative effort in several senses, Organ Eye assembles some of Maranha's and Machás's work in Osso Exótico exploring hypnotic, repetitive & ritualistic properties found in the use of several acoustic and electrical devices. Minit's previous output, as can be observed in their 2003 Staubgold release «Now Right Here», is a mind-expanding/soul-mellowing exercise of drone music, processed and designed via digital media. The intersection and addition to this sum, is the fully-formed patchwork of eternal sound vibration they manage to generate in unison, taking from the seminal teachings of the Young/Conrad/Riley axis, and deconstructing the spiritual trip as to be able to reposess it and make it their own. Throughout the record's two tracks (both over the 20 minute mark), circular fuzzed out Hammond riffs keep realigning the same fragments as they change throughout the jams, while delicate violin sweeps draw up the soundspace. Digital treatment, processed acoustic sources & a number of precise sonic particles are constantly thrown onto the ululating harmonic lines, until they unlock the grooves, and revelation times occurs. Organ Eye is drone music in modern forms as spiritual alignment in crescendo, like constellations drawing themselves up, finding an opening for the infinite, blasting away, seeing it manifest itself and being a part of it, then walking away from it, simultaneously observing and generating its disintegration. At the end of the day it's beautiful irony that some truly cosmic experience and a secular ritual can be reinvented and still manifest itself with clarity while undergoing scalpelization. The rest is just down to taking it into the outer regions and sharing the trip once again, to reenter the holy channels of ineffable feeling, to forget and relearn, forever.
Pedro Gomes

OK so David Maranha is back. After Osso Exotico's collaboration with Verre Enharmoniques (see Vital Weekly 557), and a re-issue of 'Piano Suspenso', he now pops up as Organ Eye, together with Patracia Machas and Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly, otherwise known as Mimit. In February both Maranha and Mimit played at ZDB in Lisbon and later Machas came along and in between March and December 2006 they made the two pieces that form the self-titled debut album. Maranha plays hammond organ, violin, Guffond electronics, Machas harmonium, bass drum and bowed piano and Tilly electronics. If one is a bit acquainted with both Osso Exotico and Mimit, it would be no surprise that drones play an important role here, but it's quite violent ones. More say Tony Conrad & John Cale than Mirror or Monos. Highly improvised it seems to me, with lots of small strange sounds shivering below the surface: the electro-acoustic component of this music. The meeting of the acoustic instruments by the Portuguese, versus the electro-acoustic, loop based Australians. It's quite a tour de force this one. Loud, but not too much noise, present and clear, rather than lulling the listener into sleep. Very intense music and perhaps for all four involved a break with what they have been doing so far. For me the best of the these three. (FdW)
Frans de Waard
Vital, number 567

As guiding hand behind Portugal’s Osso Exótico David Maranha has long bowed his way towards the heart of Eternal Music. Drawing inspiration from the 60s experiments that eventually birthed Velvet Underground, Maranha enlists longtime collaborator Patricia Machás as well as like-minded New Zealanders Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly to explore two long and detail-rich drone excursions. While earlier recordings, such as excellent 2000 release Circunscrita on Namskeio records, delved exclusively into the dense properties of acoustic instruments, Organ Eye opens the door to the electronics provided by the NZ invitees. The results are phenomenal. On “Tema #1” Maranha and Machás’ slowly breath through their Hammond airways adding little pockets of violin, drum and bowed piano as time passes. The electronics here are so gradual, transparent and integrated they never really reveal themselves until the piece concludes. “Tema #2” however picks up at that spot with the modem squelch of digital noise transmitting its signal into both past and future. Building these pieces through improvisation, the players are skilled listeners, preferring to cooperate on completely filling the cavity of listening gracefully rather than overwhelming with over-amplification and feedback.
Eric Hill
SURGERY

Born in 2005 from the people involved with Osso Exótico and Minit because of a live concert, Organ Eye found their definitive organic with the successive help of Patricia Machás (also a member of Osso Exótico). Their first homonymous album contains two long untitled experimental suites which seem composed in trance. This "brain music" ideally link the experimental field with Krautrock thanks to the lysergic approach to sounds. The suites form an unique mutating work of the length of 45 minutes which like a snake who changes his skin, slowly crawls between the sounds. On the background the organ loops create a sort of liquid background while casual beaten objects duet with feedbacks. The tension and the noise level increase and when the organ become the main sound it seems agonizing, spreading its sound like blood. The second suite is based on the same approach but the sounds change a little (there are more bass sounds and the organ remember me the 70's improvisations). I appreciated the attitude but I wasn't that much on the same frequency...
30 April 2007
Maurizio Pustianaz
Chain D.L.K.

Organ Eye is a momentary collaboration between Portugal’s Osso Exótico and Minit of New Zealand. The quartet of experimental musicians here present a Spartan document of two tracks totalling 46 minutes, improvised, indebted to early minimalism and its binocular gaze toward medieval drone and eastern raga. The first segment, “Tema #1”, opens on sharp, electro-acoustic drones, and the timely arrival of snippets of organic sampling, meted-out into loose beats. However, shying away from the blip-blop of To Rococo Rot, Ui, or any number of Staubgold sympathizers, Organ Eye restricts its focus to the colour and texture of a handful of tones, with each of the four band-members inhabiting a place in the ear where they carefully vibrate a strand. The acidity of the central drone recalls the restless sustain of La Monte Young in Growing’s ‘The Sky’s Run Into The Sea’, evoking the same natural harmonics, coupling these with a swarming of noise like fired synapses suggesting the pantheism of life in micro and macro. Succeeding the entropy of the first, “Tema #2” appears more focused, layering bolts of high-end drone atop one another with an almost algebraic rhythm, noise ornaments and a Terry Riley organ drone issuing forth over bass-drum punctuations; as if magnetized, the lingering elements realign to give the panther robot definition as a Krautrock wall of sound. Ecstatic, complete exhilaration. Jewel-cased, with cool metallic-ink design.
17 Apr 07
Animal Psi

Organ Eye's Self titled debut servers up two long form satisfying and detailed drone based pieces from this Australia/ New Zealand four piece.
They Utilizes a mix of electronics, hammond organ, violin, processed harmonium, minimal percussion and guitar elements to create their richly detailed and growing sound worlds. Tema # 1 is the first track, It's starts off with grey first morning light drones that are met by circling string harmonics. the picec slow grows and develops with One of the most rewarding elements been this wonderful repeated sound that brings to mind the slow pumping of aged hospital ventilation system. The picec builds to wonderful powerful end with eerier marching bass drum behind the shifting yet dronig sound elements. Tema # 2 is the second track and starts up in a more hectic and busy feel, with layers of different instrumentals drone/stuck patterns over laying and scuttling around eachs. As the track develops the hectic-ness seems to grow in volume and depth. There’s also a nice throbbing bass line added in too, that really builds to quite a rocking and beautiful hectic crescendo, before like the first track finishing off with the eerier and atmospheric bass drum elements.
An original, atmospheric and dense take on drone music, which really rewards repeated listening as new sound details and textural elements seem to come to the surface.
Roger Batty
Musique Machine

Da membri di Osso Exòtico (David Maranha e Patrìcha Machàs) e Minit (Jasmine Guffond e Torbert Tilly), ecco due improvvisazioni di circa venti minuti ciascuna tra organo hammond, violino, harmonium, piano ed elettronica, dove è certo quest'ultimo elemento, visti anche i pesanti trattamenti riservati agli altri strumenti, ad emergere. Free jazz forse, nell'attitudine più che nella forma che poi assumono i suoni, che fanno pensare al Jim O'Rourke di "I'm Happy and I'm singing..." e anche al Fennez più estremo. Come in loro, anche qui però la componente melodica, emotiva, sentimentale addirittura, emerge e si fa sentire. Nessun tecnicismo fine a sé stesso, nessuna autoindulgenza: ogni singolo suono è sparato fuori con carica emotiva e pathos degno dell'opera. Un primo brano più sommesso, ed un secondo più lirico e denso accompagnano per quarantaquattro intensissimi minuti giocati sugli intrecci di frequenze medie ed alte, con qualche diradato profondissimo basso a fare talvolta capolino. Il flusso è ininterrotto, densissimo, continuo e teso, ma mai estenuante, ovviamente per chi è abituato a questo genere di musica sperimentale. Ma per chi invece in questo ambito è stufo di sperimentalismi sterili che lasciano quasi del tutto da parte il lato emotivo di questa che è pur sempre musica, Organ Eye è un disco da avere a tutti i costi.
Matteo Uggeri
sands-zine

La sigla è nuova ma la musica e i personaggi no. Gli Organ Eye nascono infatti dalla fusione di due delle più interessanti drone bands in circolazione: i portoghesi Osso Exòtico (David Maranha e Patricia Machas) e gli australiani Minit (Jasmine Guffond e Torben Tilly). L’album di debutto, omonimo, rappresenta la perfetta fusione tra l’approccio dei primi e lo stile dei secondi, tra la plasticità dei portoghesi e la ripetitività degli australiani. Le due tracce di cui si compone il disco, intitolate programmaticamente Tema #1 e Tema #2, riassumono l’estetica di una drone music classica, che lavora in crescendo, passando dal minimalismo della prima parte al rumorismo della seconda.

L’introduzione lentissima e statica che pigramente si sostanzia in un drone. Il crescendo sinistro delle interferenze. Lo sciamare elettronico che, alla maniera dei Growing, si incastra in blocchi di frequenze interrotte. Un habitat di microsuoni mandati in loop e messi in circolo dal suono reiterato di uno psichedelico organo hammond. Il marziale panorama noisy alla Fullerton Whitman, in cui si sfocia nell’ultima parte di Tema #2 prima di annichilirsi nell’apocalittico finale. Per essere drone music, quella degli Organ Eye si mantiene meritoriamente lontana dai classici momenti di noia che affliggono il genere. Un nome da segnarsi per gli estimatori di queste sonorità.
Antonello Comunale
sentireascoltare

Wie ein leises Glimmen schwelen die von Harmonium und Hammond Organ geloopten Morsecodes in der Nacht. Zwei lange Stücke, Tema #1 und #2, beinhaltet das Album Organ Eye um David Maranha (Osso Exotico), Jasmine Gufford, Patricia Machas und Torben Tilly. Die Aufnahmen enstanden live in der ZDB Galerie in Lissabon ende Februar 2005 und wurden im letzten Dezember in Berlin abgeschlossen. Raga-eske Intonierungen werden subtil aufgebaut, verwandeln sich in 22 Minuten zum sphärischen Monument eines statisch geformten Augenblicks. Wie Oren Ambarchi auf seinem bezaubernd melancholischen Album Triste von 2005 oder bei Charlemagne Palestines minimalistisch-reduziertem Werk Strumming Music von 1975 werden die mikrotonalen Zwischentöne bei Organ Eye verlangsamt, geloopt, gedehnt und gleichzeitig in repetitive Pattern umgesetzt, die fast zwingend magnetisieren. Mag sein, dass die elektro-akustische Dronemusik etwas en vogue kommen wird in sagen wir, 160 Jahren, als eigenständiges Genre jedenfalls existiert sie relativ erfolgreich und kontinuierlich seit Young/Conrad/Riley in den späten fünfziger Jahren die minimalistische Komponente der jeweiligen und gemeinsamen indischen Lehrmeister wie Pandit Pran Nath aufregend und inspirierend fanden.
Peter Kaemmerer
Hair Entertainment

Seit geradezu undenkbar langer Zeit sorgt David Maranha dafür, dass Portugal nicht als leerer Fleck auf der Landkarte für experimentelle Musik wahrgenommen wird. In schön regelmäßigen Abständen, mal unter dem Projektnamen Osso Exótico, mal unter eigenem Namen, arbeitet Maranha an der Schnittstelle von Post-Psychedelic, Musique Conrète und Soundscapes lange bevor Psychedelisches eine Renaissance erfahren hat. 1997 war beispielsweise auf dem kleinen französischen Sonoris-Label mit Osso Exótico VI – Church Organ Works eine ungemein intensive CD mit Minimal Music an der Kirchenorgel entstanden, die diesem im Pop-Kontext doch eher selten gehörten Instrument zu einem ganz neuen Image verhalf. Die Orgel, diesmal eine Hammondorgel, steht auch im Mittelpunkt der Aufnahmen zu Organ Eye, ein Name, in dem das Instrument ebenso steckt wir das Organische, mit dem sich diese pulsierenden Aufnahmen assoziieren lassen. Zusammen mit Jasmine Guffond (Electronics) und Torben Tilly (Electronics) von Minit sowie Osso-Exótico-Mitstreiterin Patricia Machás (Harmonium, Bass Drum, Piano) sind hier im Quartett strudelnde Soundscapes aufgenommen worden, die eine geradezu orgiastische Intensität entfalten. Auf zwei langen Nummern laufen die fuzz-verstärkten Orgeln heiß und rekapitulieren noch einmal die musikalischen Visionen eines La Monte Young und Tony Conrad, ohne diesen ›Originalen‹ gegenüber irgendeinen Schritt zurück zu fallen bzw. sie nur wieder neu aufleben zu lassen. Die auf Improvisations-Basis eingespielten Stücke steigern sich langsam, bis der Raum kurz vorm Platzen mit Schwingungen erfüllt ist und die geradezu physische Kraft dieser Klänge ein verwirrendes Gefühl von Freude und stockendem Atem zugleich bereitet. Schönheit hat einen neuen Namen und ist wie immer zu überwältigend, um länger als die hier präsentierten 44 Minuten ertragen zu werden.

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