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The Inoperative Suspension of a Stoppage

by Radboud Mens & Fernando José Pereira

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Inoperative Suspension of a Stoppage, Sixty Oscillators, Movement, Continuous, Envelope, Live 29/05/2019, 2, 3/4, and 19 more. , and , .

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about

“The Inoperative Suspension of a Stoppage”, the first collaboration of Radboud Mens and Fernando José Pereira (Haarvöl), deals with time, without wanting to lose it. With electronics and guitar, they create six slowly changing dronescapes in which field recordings and other electronic sounds float just below the surface. The quiet opener, which has something of Machinefabriek, starts at first hearing as a sonorous, isolated drone, with sounds that are almost whispered behind the drones in the foreground. That makes listening a much more active experience than the hypnotic effect I know from many drone records. That also seems to be the intention: according to the accompanying letter, the artists want to take a position in a field outside anesthesia with this record, in order to retrieve the constituent layers of time. The extent to which that goal is achieved will differ per listener, but the slow yet constant development of the layered drones is ideally suited for deep listening without becoming intoxicated. Some tracks impose themselves a bit more than others. The guitar-based tracks are room-filling, and the third track plays with frequencies that sometimes seem to resonate with my tinnitus. Despite the philosophical and hermetic titles and liner notes, 'The Inoperative Suspension..' is definitely not an academic exercise, but the music feels organic (for lack of a better word). The fact that on one of the songs, which reminded me of Dag Rosenqvist & Rutger Zuydervelt's 'Vintermusik', the guitar attacks are suddenly audible fits perfectly in the whole. Beautiful record, in which there is much to discover - perhaps even time itself. (msch from Gonzo Circus)

Radboud Mens (gitaartafel, drone machine, veldopnames, elektronica) is nu terug met het album The Inoperative Suspension Of A Stoppage, dat hij samen met Fernando José Pereira (elektronica) van de Portugese groep Haarvöl heeft gemaakt, waarvan net het nieuwe prachtalbum Seeking The Intimacy Of Silence is verschenen. Beide hebben in hun muziek enige overlap, die ze hier op afstand dan ook opzoeken en middels bestandsuitwisseling hebben gecreëerd. Overigens hoor je dat aan de muziek niet af, want die heeft er door de intieme sfeer en organische karakter alle schijn van dat dit dicht bij elkaar gemaakt is. De titel, vertaald “De niet-werkende opschorting van een onderbreking”, moet je even een paar keer lezen om hem nog niet helemaal te snappen en de filosofie achter het album is ook lastig te volgen. De elementen die een rol spelen zijn tijd, duur, het kwijtraken en proberen terug te halen van tijd en tijd los te zien van tijd zelf. Ze stellen dat als je iets onderbreekt, dit geen passieve bezigheid is, maar een verandering van wat er dan in die tijdsduur gebeurt. Als je midden op een brug stil gaat staan, spelen tijd en duur nog altijd een rol, staan je hersenen niet stil en is de brug er gewoon nog. Maar diep van binnen is hetgeen ze met de muziek willen overbrengen een soort verlangen, waarbij je kunt nadenken over het verleden, heden en de toekomst. Dat laatste kan je ook wel uit de muziek halen. Ze brengen namelijk in hun 6 composities van samen maar liefst 65 minuten rustig voortschrijdende, contemplatieve en tot de verbeelding sprekende muziek, die je even wegneemt uit de realiteit. Het is een kruisbestuiving van drones, ambient, veldopnames en allerhande elektronische geluiden, die heel geleidelijk van karakter veranderen. Dat doen ze op dusdanige wijze met subtiele lagen die zorgen voor diepgang en dat je continu geboeid blijft en verrast wordt. Eenmaal, in het voorlaatste stuk, klinken er ook gitaarklanken die je weer even naar de realiteit terugbrengen, om tot besluit nog wat grillig te eindigen. Door alles hebben ze een melancholische draad gevlochten, waardoor de muziek je ook echt weet te raken. Ik gebruik bij muziek van de buitencategorie zelden het woord mooi, maar hier is dat naast biologerend, bezinnend, beklijvend en briljant wel van toepassing. Dit is zo’n album dat je niet snel meer loslaat. Deze eerste samenwerking smaakt naar meer! (subjectivisten.nl)

Time and duration are the subjects of The Inoperative Suspension of a Stoppage, from Radboud Mens and Fernando José Pereira. The “de-anaesthetic record” addresses the accelerated pace of society while nodding to the disconnection of pandemic time, inviting listeners to listen without watches and phones (www.acloserlisten.com).

Halfway into this CD, I thought the music was beautiful, so I looked on Bandcamp for more information. There is a lengthy philosophical tract by Pereira, which I found inaccessible. I asked Radboud Mens about it, and he said one could ignore the words. Pereira is also a member of Haarvöl, the Portuguese audio and visual group. He takes credit for electronics (which I always find a difficult term, as many things could be electronics). At the same time, Radboud Mens plays something mysteriously called a guitartable, a drone machine, field recordings and electronics. Mens' work has various sides. His recent albums, 'Continuous' and 'Movement' (see Vital Weekly 1351), were excellent excursions in ambient techno. His DAT-only 'Sixty Oscillators' were ambient music generated with long string installations, modular electronics, and grand piano. The work he recorded with Pereira is in a similar direction. All things drone, atmospheric and ambient are part and parcel in the work of Haarvöl. I am told this is a work of file exchange, but if I had been told that these men played the music together in one room, I would have also believed that. There is something very organic about the music here, perhaps a form of human interaction and something we don't often hear from people exchanging sound files. The music is throughout these six pieces a slow burner. Development is minimal, but that gives the music an extra push towards atmospheric and darker things. As such, I could easily believe this is the next Haarvöl release had I not reviewed this only a few weeks ago. Heavy on the drones from all frequency ranges, from the very bottom to the highest top, and yet it never is loud or piercing (or whatever it is that low frequencies do). The guitartable kept me thinking, and the only piece with unmistakable guitar sounds in them was the title piece, which is, perhaps, also the album's least atmospheric track, but one with a good moment of change. Altogether, this is one great album. (Vital-FdW)


This is our first collaboration. It was Time and Duration that brought us together, and as such, this is one of the essential features of the work into which we immersed ourselves to make this album.

credits

released April 7, 2023

Composed and performed by:
Radboud Mens: Guitartable, Dronemachine, Field Recordings and Electronics.
Fernando José Pereira: Electronics

Image: Fernando José Pereira / Rui Manuel Vieira
Artwork: backyard studio
English Translation: Paula Grilo and J.F.

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about

Radboud Mens Schiedam, Netherlands

I’m a sound-artist and build my own acoustic instruments and sound-installations that I use in my music.
I released my first drone CD in 1995. Together with Geert-Jan Hobijn I form the core of Staalplaat Soundsystem. We built site-specific sound-installations. ... more

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