RUMOR
42’03”
JOAQUÍN GUTIÉRREZ HADID, AR
DIGITAL RELEASE
CATALOGUE: F90120
RELEASED SEPTEMBER 4, 2017
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COVER PHOTO: JOAQUÍN GUTIÉRREZ HADID
1. transmisión
2. del eco
3. en suspensión
4. a través
5. del rumor
“In 2014, I made a sound installation at the Ruth Benzacar gallery called 'El espacio es negro'. The speakers were placed in a public corridor, beside the gallery, between the street and an underground parking. There was a ventilation grille that led to the different interiors of the gallery space. So, the sounds were echoing in three different places in the same time, connecting museum, corridor, and parking. The work deals with different kinds of space limitations and their (hidden) communications. Between cultural institutions and the mundane, from the exceptional to the everyday, surrounding areas affect each other, creating a sonic link between inner and outer, private and public. 'Rumor' uses recordings collected for and during the installation as source material. Recorded within the gallery space and the underground parking, 'Rumor' features the sounds of ventilation tubes, an alarm bell, a cabinet, a ladder, and a thin vibrating metal because of the cars passing by on the upper floors”. — Joaquín Gutiérrez Hadid


JOAQUÍN GUTIÉRREZ HADID, AR [ ➔ ]
Joaquín Gutiérrez Hadid was born in 1986. Through an immersive listening, he does much of his work with field recordings and contact microphones to capture events and sensitive environment data. Places, objects, memories, being in transit and the act of listening itself, are his main interests and sources of inspirations to instigate crossings between experience and parallel realities.
In 2016, he was artist in residence at MACBA (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires). He has also exhibited works at Ruth Benzacar, cck (centro cultural kirchner), CCEBA (Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires), and performed at MUTEK. His previous works are documented on Errant Bodies Press, Farmacia901, Impulsive Habitat, and Vague Terrain.
NATHAN THOMAS / FLUID RADIO
Joaquín Gutiérrez Hadid takes quite a different approach for his album “Rumor”, which is based on a sound installation in which a ventilation shaft was used to link three contrasting spaces: an art gallery, a public corridor, and an underground car park. I wouldn’t necessarily have guessed this simply from listening to the release, but of the three albums here this is the one that would seem to present a more industrial/architectural impression. Quiet echoing clangs and metallic ringing locate the music in a built environment, while gusts of air, muffled shuffling, footsteps, and the murmur of what might be distant voices all convey a sense of transit from one space to another, a movement and exchange of energy and vibrations.
BEACH SLOTH
Joaquín Gutiérrez Hadid chooses the path less traveled on the amorphous “Rumor”. Manipulating the natural world and letting it speak simultaneously results in an environment where all feels uncertain. Everything about the pieces opts to explore the unexamined, resulting in ornate elaborate pieces. Quite expansive the two large cuts and the smaller tracks work in unison to create a mystical experience, one which washes over everything in its path. Textures serve the album greatly for they reside as the best indication of movement. Rhythms and melodies become irrelevant for the true focus goes onto the way that these textures seemingly unfold.
By far the highlight of the album comes with the gargantuan style of the opener “transmisión”. A near rhythm emerges if only for a fleeting glimpse. Environmental sounds filter into the mix akin to that of a microscopic industrial track. Moments of the piece go for a close-up droning quality where the aural universe feels nearly naked. Various muffled moments and physical bass frequencies flutter on by with “del eco”. Incredibly quiet “en suspensión” chooses to go for hushed whispers, ensuring that nothing is constant. Like a late-night reflection “a través” chooses a gentler path. Returning to a recognizable reality “del rumor” brings the real into the fray, closing the album with gusto.
“Rumor” reflects upon the importance of paying attention to those lesser sounds and signals, the ones that oftentimes are edited out of a composition, with Joaquín Gutiérrez Hadid putting them to exquisitely good use.