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Banabila & Machinefabriek

by Banabila & Machinefabriek

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    SECOND PRESSING
    While the download presents the album as free-standing songs, the cd has the tracks jointed, making it one uninterupted trip. The disc is housed in a matte digipak, with photography by Michel Banabila and design by Rutger Zuydervelt. Price includes worldwide postage.

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1.
Ascend 02:20
2.
Slow Wave I 09:12
3.
4.
Dead Air 09:43
5.
Frost 02:27
6.
Slow Wave II 05:40
7.
Flares 02:32
8.
Bad Wiring 07:01
9.
Descend 02:47 video

about

Ambient, electronic.

We (Michel Banabila and Rutger Zuydervelt) met quite a while ago, in our hometown Rotterdam. It felt inevitable to work together. Both restless and busy with all sorts of projects, it took a while though to truly make it happen.

Things got more serious once we finally got together to talk about the collaboration, in September 2012. We agreed to start slow, and then really kick it off early 2013. But in all our enthousiasm, we quickly got caught up in an unstoppable workflow. Swapping files back and forth, layering and processing each other's sounds, it immediately felt like a match made in heaven. In an incredibly short, though highly inspiring time span, the album 'Banabila & Machinefabriek' was created. A 40+ minute journey through warm drones, mysterious crackling and outbursts of digital noise. Obviously, we are both immensly proud of the result.

www.machinefabriek.nu
www.banabila.com

reviews ;

VITAL WEEKLY 860 : Banabila & Machinefabriek.
Both Zuydervelt and Banabila live in Rotterdam, so it's hardly a surprise that the two of them would meet up and work together. They started in September 2012 with the idea to take time and kick it off next year, but as soon as they started they got into lots of interesting results, so that now, early December 2012 there is already the first release. Forty minutes in total, with nine pieces, from a handful of seconds to nine minutes. A fine album, I think. It combines the interests of both, the drone like material of Machinefabriek and experimental electronics of Banabila, while both of them keep a keen ear on the ground to make it also musically interesting. A vibrant album I should think in which a lot happens. Digital noise sits along nicely with more subdued music, and sometimes within one piece. It seems as if Banabila also knows how to keep Zuydervelt on track in trying something new, with improvised bits on the guitar such as in "Flares". I like the fact that this is more noisy record than I would expect from Zuydervelt, with a whole lot of new ideas harvested here.
(FdW)

FLUID RADIO :
Their first, eponymous record together demonstrates this shared aptitude for cooperation, their respective approaches blending so seamlessly that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. It could be argued that the album is too dramatic and too flooded with ambient warmth to be a Machinefabriek record, and also too playful and fluid to be credited to Banabila alone, yet the overall impression is of the workings of a single entity rather than the juxtaposition of two different styles. Although electronic sound sources predominate, with a fair few field recordings thrown in for good measure, the ‘acoustic’ appears privileged over the ‘electro’ in that I could almost describe the air pushed by my speakers as syrupy, so full and weighty is the sound. Highs are piercing and lows throbbing, yet never irritatingly so; this is music that is strongly present, without being overbearing. The idea that “two heads are better than one” may not be new, but if putting it into practice is increasingly the norm, for Banabila and Machinefabriek it is an approach that has reaped rich dividends.
Nathan Thomas.

AMBIENTBLOG ;
Since both can also have quite a different musical focus, it's interesting to see where these ends meet when they are working together. When they finally met, the spark obviously exploded into a flame: "We agreed to start slow, and then really kick it off early 2013. But in all our enthousiasm, we quickly got caught up in an unstoppable workflow. Swapping files back and forth, layering and processing each other's sounds, it immediately felt like a match made in heaven. In an incredibly short, though highly inspiring time span, the album 'Banabila & Machinefabriek' was created." On "Banabila & Machinefabriek " , their shared interest is in creating abstract electronic soundscapes, with a dynamic range varying from immersive calm sounds to noisy eruptions. This means their album is not exactly 'easy listening', it can be a challenging but adventurous listen. Their interaction is immaculate: it is surprisingly hard to distinguish the Banabila elements from those added by Machinefabriek. The sum of their contribution is definitely "more" than just both separate parts. Considering some of the noisy outbursts in Bad Wiring and Dead Air, this album may probably not be to anyone's liking. But everyone else - especially those who know the previous works of Banabila and/or Machinefabriek - should definitely check out this release !
Peter van Cooten.

includemeout2.blogspot.nl :
These finely-tuned forays into hiss, crackle and anti-Pop are designed to play through as one long trip on the CD, but in digital form it's broken up into 9 tracks. All the same, it sounds seamless; ever-shifting sands of sound (!) seduce and spring surprises. Just as your lulled into a sense of security you get sucked into black holes like 'Frost' and 'Bad Wiring'. Even the calm is frequently fused with static unease, as on 'Slow Wave 1', which evolves to the point where a robot Fred Astaire taps across the sound stage. At least, that's what I imagine.

MOUSIQUE.NL :
Op dit album vinden beide componisten elkaar in het abstracte schilderen met geluid, zogezegd. Je herkent elementen van beiden terug in de muziek en toch is het lastig te bepalen wat precies van wie komt. Fälschungen is een kort intermezzo (hoofdzakelijk soundscaping en fieldrecording), waarna Dead Air de trommelvliezen mag tarten met digitale noise die niet van de poes is. Dit vraagt even wat omschakelijk, toch is het niet alleen maar `herrie’, het is een contrastrijk nummer waarbij het haast etherische tweede deel naar mijn mening nog mooier wordt door de noise die eraan vooraf gaat. Bij Bad Wiring (het op een na laatste nummer) gebeurd dit nog eens, maar dan andersom. Van een rustig begin ontaardt dit stuk in pure digitale noise – de hoge piepjes doen letterlijk pijn aan de oren – om vervolgens weer te vervagen in een Eliane Radigue achtige resonerende toon. Descend doet het omgekeerde van Ascend (hoe kan het ook anders); het geeft weer houvast, brengt je met beide benen op de grond om je dan langzaam weer los te laten in de realiteit.
Peter Tuin.

RIF RAF :
De langst track, 'Dead Air', is een ander hoogtepunt, met een hectische aaneenschakeling van computer-glitches die uiteindelijk vervalt in een ijzige drone. 'Bad Wiring' volgt dan weer het omgekeerde traject ; vanuit een verstilde melodie ontstaat er een chaotisch digitaal gewriemel dat aan het betere Mego werk doet denken. Opnieuw een pluim voor experimenteel Holland, Banabila en Machinefabriek hebben voor een handvol fantastische nummers gezorgd. (ts)

MUSIC WONT SAVE YOU blog
I quarantadue minuti di “Banabila & Machinefabriek” descrivono un ideale percorso ellittico, dall’iniziale coltre di saturazioni in crescendo all’esausto svaporamento della conclusiva “Descend”, le cui frequenze modulate attraversano territori ghiacciati (la magmatica “Frost”), producendo riflessi ambientali di denso isolazionismo (“Flare”).

Ma sono i due brani intitolati “Slow Waves” e la claustrofobica “Dead Air” (non a caso i più lunghi del lavoro) a suggellare con sciabordii liquidi, propulsioni sintetiche e throbbing profondamente notturni l’essenza di una collaborazione che coniuga rumorismo digitale e caldi drone, disegnando scenari irrequieti e misteriosi.
Raffaello Russo.

SOUND COLOUR VIBRATION :
Michel Banabila & Rutger Machinefabriek are two musicians from Rotterdam whose recent collaboration has really taken me into a rewarding sonic experience. With the two artists having their own careers respectfully, the collaboration serves as a joining of forces in which is as surreal as it comes in terms of the musical pallet expressed. Exotic minimal tones find crackles and other digital decaying noises in a nestled and dreamy state. Created as one continuous piece stretched over nine songs, the overwhelming sense of emotion present is incredible.

Music devoid of harmony in the way this album is normally has little climaxes, little identity and carries on a shallow and most times hollow body. Banabila & Machinefabriek is a stunning example of how to extract a lot of life into regions where most things can’t flourish. It speaks of life and this world in a strikingly potent form, creating spirals of windows into the human condition and the fluorescent aura of the cosmic surroundings this world offers. It’s everything and nothing all at once; the void and opening of something new in this dimension.

Banabila & Machinefabriek is a highly experimental album that glows with some of the most breathtaking ambiance I have ever heard. This is gorgeous music that evolves slowly and every bit of patience is demanded to fully realize what this world represents and contains. The nature of how this album glows specifically goes well beyond a simple explanation of “noise” and has become a type of sound I truly love. This is the type of recording that proves how special and important this generation is and has continued to be in the name of 20th and 21st century atonal music.
Erik Otis.

LOOP.CL ;
Michel Banabila and Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek), both based in Rotterdam, joined their talents for this collaboration exchanging files and layering and processing each other's sounds. 'Ascend' is a short trip to the top of the sky whose background is a warm ambient and beautiful melody. On 'Slow Wave I' overlapping rhythms are produced by small flashes of digital noise, while on 'Falschungen' records the song of different birds. 'Dead Air' is immersed in the intricate shortwave communications that begin to float in a sea of drones. 'Frost' shows on one side a wall of digital noise and on the other, the innocent song of a seagull. 'Slow Wave II' blends countless oscillating synthetic sounds and acoustic noise. On 'Flares' birdsongs appear again and isolated voices spread in a subtle ambient. The darker song of the album is 'Bad Wiring' with its abstract digital noise and penetrating drones. Very intense and hypnotic indeed. 'Descend', as the opposite side of 'Ascend', has a melancholic line, but also a beautiful melody in the background.
Guillermo Escudero.

KINDAMUZIK :
Een kleine roman of kortfilm in klank.
De biotoop die de twee in klank vatten is nergens zweverig of spacy, maar veeleer naturalistisch en aards.
De samenwerking klinkt als een puzzel die een hoog abstract beeld oplevert dat pas opdoemt als de stukjes allemaal op hun plek liggen. Het uiteenrafelen welk deel van wie van de twee componisten is, blijkt echter niet alleen een onmogelijke opgave; het is er vooral een die niet ter zake doet waar Banabila en Zuydervelt elkaars minimale input tot maximaal effect hebben weten in te zetten. Daarmee komt het tweetal tot een avontuurlijke tocht in geluid die overduidelijke raakvlakken kent met het werk van hen allebei apart, maar even zo vaak nieuwe en onverwachte wegen inslaat die naar onbekende oorden leiden. Tel daarbij op dat de plaat zwanger is van liefdevolle menselijke emotie en deze ambient laat zich nauwelijks beluisteren als muzikale ruimtevulling en voor alles als een kleine roman of kortfilm in klank.
Sven Schlijper.

DISSOLVE : Banabila & Machinefabriek
Habitant depuis des annees tous les deux a Rotterdam, les prolixes Michel Banabila et Rutger Zuydervelt etaient sans doute voues a collaborer ensemble un jour ou l'autre. Evoluant en parallele dans des registres au les points communs (field recordings, sons et texture d'instruments reels, electronique volontairement primitive) sont finalement moins nombreux que les differences, les deux artistes neerlandais n'ont pourtant demarre leur travail commun qu'en septembre dernier, en se promettant de prendre leur temps... jusqu'a ce que, emballes par leurs echanges de fichiers, ils accelerent la cadence et sortent leur album commun bien plus rapidement que prevu. Impossible ici de detecter les sources de chacun, les neuf titres ayant ete composes par un echange permanent de fichiers, chacun retravaillant l'oeuvre de l'autre jusqu'a ce qu'apparaisse un territoire nouveau, ou les climats purement ambient se voient grignoter par des saccades electroniques, ou les drones acres cotoient des guitares parasitees. Ne se reposant jamais sur leurs lauriers, les deux compositeurs se livrent ici en toute candeur, comme s'ils decouvraient juste leurs outils et font de Banabila & Machinefabriek un album sans cesse surprenant, qui merite nombre de redecouvertes. Pratiquement indisponible dans sa version CD, cette superbe collaboration est en revanche telechargeable sur les sites respectifs de ses auteurs.
Jean-Francois Micard.



AVANT MUSIC : Banabila & Machinefabriek.
This self-titled self-release has an immediacy that reflects its creation in a very short time, with a flurry of file-swapping in October of last year. Its a shame they havent given it a title, because the nine-track, forty-minute suite, from the wheezy harmonium of Ascend to the elegant denouement of Descend, definitely tells a story of some kind, with a pleasing narrative curve and some dramatic hairpin turns. Slow Wave I is foamy with plucked guitar and computer glitches that lap lazily at a pebbled beach. Dead Air is long, drawn out and troubling and Frost captures a blizzard inside a snow globe. Slow Wave II initiates a second half which makes you woozy with gongs, singing bowls and singing birds briefly discernable through an ambient fog that, hit by a sudden chill turns into spiky, sparky precipitation. Somehow, we end up dry and cozy inside an electronic church at the end.
Stephen Fruitman.



TOUCHING EXTREMES : Banabila & Machinefabriek.
Cloaked harmoniums producing handsomely concordant drones. Unhasty melodies floating through amniotic liquids full of fluorescent spumes, occasional pops and curious signals, then a sort of spastic tap dancing kicks in. A phlegmatic weirdness imbued with the same wide-eyedness of a child discovering the world. The stifling of desires and aspirations under the ebb and flow of inexplicability. The ears pushed by compelling pulses coming 'from within'. Circumstantial noises taken from uncharted places, discriminatingly mingled with the electronic textures. Voices from insubstantial locations, disintegrated until they become just another shade in the music's fabric. Thousands of digital crumbles materializing everywhere. Stinging frequencies over guttural roars. This long-distance alliance holds several aces, though one couldn't really formalize the result as innovative. The stuff remains rather riveting nevertheless, proudly representing the 'honorable' side of this jam-packed zone of sound-making.
Massimo Ricci.

ATTN magazine : Banabila & Machinefabriek.
By the sounds of it, the sheer magnitude of creative momentum driving this remote collaboration was unforeseen by either participant. Initially expecting to carry the construction process through into early 2013, Machinefabriek and Banabila found themselves caught in a more spontaneous and pacier file-swapping process than they ever anticipated – the slow burn seemingly burst into flames, and I get the sense that the record’s sense of fluidity and constant movement is a direct result of the collaborative “hot-potato” subsequently played out by its two partakers.

In fact, the steady-handed over-analysis and refinement that usually characterises these sorts of collaborations is completely absent – instead, the album is abundant with sudden explosions and dramatic changes in direction that feel more akin to the irreversible actions of an improvisational gut instinct. Take the opening of “Dead Air”, which bleeps and gurgles like a jammed jet plane GPS before erupting into white noise, modem malfunction and trapped intercom voices, like the sound of a catastrophic mid-flight mayday. Who saw that coming?

Elsewhere, the transitions are smoother in their execution but no less drastic in their atmospheric overhaul. The end of “Flares” sounds like a submarine maneuvering a gigantic underwater sewer system (complete with the metronomic, echoing beeps of radar), emerging suddenly in amongst the aggressive electronic chatter and ominous low drones of “Bad Wiring”. Just as the audio files that comprised the collaboration’s building blocks were tugged back and forth between the two artists, the listener is hauled to and fro between unstable circuit rooms and expanses of lush woodland, thrust into snatches of field recording before being sent spiralling into concrete hangars stacked with whirring machinery. It’s dizzying, but there’s a real sense of ecstasy within the total loss of control.
Jack Chuter.

MAEROR3.livejournal.com ;
Совместный альбом Мишеля Банабилы и Рутгера Зюйдервейта демонстрирует, как музыка одновременно может быть и уютно-умиротворенной, и шумно-беспокойной. Как, в конце концов, вообще может быть музыка, когда авторы больше времени уделяют выкручиванию ручек радиоприемника с целью поймать интересные коротковолновые сигналы и шумы? Мишель и Рутгер долгое время обменивались между собой треками, устроив своего рода студийный «пинг-понг», во время которого исходники прирастали новыми слоями и текстурами, неуловимо меняясь до тех пор, пока их авторы не остались довольны результатом. Есть сильное подозрение, что удовольствие от этого результата получит и слушатель, при условии, что он любит погружать свое сознание в мягкие и теплые эмбиентные потоки, полученные с помощью гитарных импровизаций, и дружелюбно относится к тому, чтобы полушария мозга получали точечный массаж небольшими порциями цифрового шума. Дроновое начало «Ascend» некоторое время остается изолированным от внешнего воздействия, но постепенно расползается во все стороны, прирастая трескучими и шелестящими помехами, чьими-то голосами, шумовой взвесью и глитчевыми заморочками. Первая часть «Slow Wave» представляет собой уютный гитарный эмбиент (пожалуй, именно в его присутствии лучше всего созерцать минималистичную обложку альбома), в неспешном русле которого есть место и для радио, и для скроенных из его помех шустрых IDM-ритмов. Назло задремавшим под эти звуки «Fälschungen» неожиданно выстраивает стену колючего шума, обрушивая хлесткие струи цифрового песка, который не заглушает разве что диалоги радиоведущих, зато после него можно спокойно и полностью раствориться в пространстве «Мертвого воздуха», потоки гитарного и цифрового дрона скроют вас от суетной реальности. «Frost» - интереснейший трек. В нем фоном идут полевые записи, видимо, сделанные на морском побережье, но в роли самих волн мы слышим тихие и аккуратные шумовые потоки, которые также, как и настоящие волны, набегают на берег с тихим шелестом и отступают обратно. «Slow Wave II» заряжена каким-то неуловимым беспокойством, которое немного сглаживается эхом джазовых клавишных в «Flares», но, обманув таким образом чуткость и бдительность, вновь прорывается колючими, но не слишком агрессивными шумами в «Bad Wiring». Наконец, «Descend», которую я отмечу для себя как лучшую композицию на этом альбоме – за теплые эмбиентные глубины, за грамотное и немного драматическое развитие, за особое настроение, проникнувшись которым, вы тоже полюбите этот трек всем сердцем. Хороший экспериментальный альбом, любителям глитча, минимализма и электроакустических преобразований нужно обратить на него внимание, про поклонников «Machinefabriek», число которых Рутгер увеличивает с каждым новым выпущенным релизом, промолчу, они и так в курсе, что им делать с этим диском.

NORMAN RECORDS :
I have here a CD by a man whose music I have heard, Machinefabriek aka Rutger Zuydervelt, and a man whose name is not familiar to me at all, Michel Banabila (although further investigation reveals he’s made loads of records and reveals me for what I really am; something they refer to in the sound art community as a “noob”). They’ve been friends for a while, apparently, and only recently started working on music together, swapping files back and forth to speedily create this album of tranquil, flickery post-ambient sound art.

Ambientblog have said “it is surprisingly hard to distinguish the Banabila elements from those added by Machinefabriek”, and I would say that counts double for me. It’s really good, though, and surprisingly musical, with some cheeky polyrhythms (which are making Phil exclaim that it reminds him of drummy whiz-kid Andrea Belfi) rubbing against soft-grinding drones and wisps of piano in the second track while elsewhere birds chirrup and panpipes whistle and electronics twitch and computerised waves swell forcefully onto a digital beach.

At one point there’s a sudden brain-splattering barrage of computer mayhem which led to exclamations of “this is hard work!” in the office, but it slowly eases into a blurry shivering dronescape which heads into Deathprod-esque territory, which I guess is their way of saying sorry for splattering your brain. Basically this is a measured and varied tapestry of blissful ambience, glitchy melodic sound art that’s not afraid to step out of your comfort zone and slap you round the chops, expertly crafted by two men who know their way around a soundwave. (Mike)

credits

released December 12, 2012

Music by Michel Banabila and Rutger Zuydervelt,

2012 ℗ Tapu Records

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