BEACH SLOTH

Such delicacy and restraint informs Miguel Isaza’s otherworldly “Māyopama”. Throughout the album, Miguel Isaza lets silence speak volumes. Gestures nearly microscopic become greatly amplified. Displaying a great degree of taste Miguel Isaza ensures that the entirety of the album draws from a refined palette of color. Melodies do not exist in a traditional sense for the spaciousness of the pieces ensure that such an approach becomes futile. Over the course of the album Miguel Isaza incorporates many layers into a singular whole ensuring that each piece builds off the last. Akin to miniature symphonies the songs work wonders allowing for a great exploration of calm. Life teems underneath these seemingly massive undertakings. On the opener “sueño” Miguel Isaza chooses a style that appears to be a neat combination of Raster Noton meets L-NE, ensuring both worlds come together in a most blissful fashion. Naturalistic rhythms lead the way on the drifting “acto de magia”. Drones work into swirling layers on the gorgeous “alucinación”. Unstable elements permeate the constantly in flux feeling of “espejismo”. Great bass rumbles introduce “eco” before the song floats up into higher frequencies. Easily the highlight of the album comes from the heartfelt “reflejo”. Rather blissful “reflejo” filters its surroundings into a compelling stream of sounds and textures, giving it a summery vibe. Field recordings come into the mix on the terrestrial “aparición” which neatly closes off the album in a most gracious way. With “Māyopama” Miguel Isaza creates a spellbinding aural atmosphere.

SO WHAT

Tracce di memoria traslate e ricomposte a formare un ambiente esteso in cui si fondono e confondono la solida realtà e l’evanescente apparenza. Partendo da un cospicuo materiale raccolto durante un soggiorno in Italia, Miguel Isaza genera un microcosmo surreale nel quale i dati concreti, scomponendosi e ricombinandosi in flussi privi di riferimenti evidenti, plasmano sfuggenti paesaggi interiori. Oggetto dell’indagine condotta dal sound artist colombiano è la propensione di determinate combinazioni sonore a definire apparenze immateriali  eppure talmente vivide ed incisive al punto da creare un cortocircuito tra ciò che concretamente è stato e ciò che l’immaginazione autonomamente riesce ad aggiungere. Attraverso un attento lavoro di cesellatura di minuti frammenti “Mayopama” esplora sonicamente l’esperienza di differenti piani illusori che vanno dal sogno all’allucinazione, dall’eco al riflesso, tradotti in sequenze flebili  di crepitanti schegge che emergono gradualmente in filigrana, risuonando cariche di denso ed insondabile mistero. In tal modo i dati oggettivi della memoria attiva convergono verso territori indefinibili la cui collocazione è lasciata al portato percettivo di soggettivamente chi li recepisce. Un’affascinante immersione in un universo composto da non-luoghi sonori.

NATHAN THOMAS / FLUID RADIO

Miguel Isaza’s “Māyopama” pushes deeper into the reductionist aesthetic, its incredibly faint, intermittent sounds frequently inaudible above the everyday background provided by central heating, Diwali fireworks, and housemates’ pottering around the house. I enjoyed the album most when I stopped straining to hear, and simply relaxed and let the music become part of the general sonic environment. Slight hisses, quiet ringing and clunking, tiny knocking and chinking, and the occasional vaporous chord or thrumming tone: these sounds emerge quietly from the ambient hum before descending back into it again. They often sound quite natural and organic, without sounding like anything in particular.