R. Rebeiro – Music From Circa The End Of Earth Time / Moving With The Current Of The River [2CD]

"R. Rebeiro follows his distinctive percussive explorations via Uzi (2020, AR53) and MY DISCO with Music From Circa The End Of Earth Time / Moving With The Current Of The River. Set across two distinct halves, the two disc release seeks to express Rebeiro's intrigue with velocity, dynamics and tonality - united by his 2-decade long exploration with percussion.

Music From Circa The End Of Earth Time continues Rebeiro's generative MaxMSP driven works, where noise and rapid filter cutoffs are delicately balanced with unforeseen structural changes - fostering an environment of instability within clearly defined sonic arcs. While Uzi explored these motifs within a near-club approach, Earth Time pushes the framework further into extended and frenetic explorations of mass and solidity. Each track (Music I through Music XII) employs immense weight and velocity to illustrate his staunchly unique approach to digital rhythm generation, underpinned by laser-line sub bass precision. Physicality is explored via sine tones and washes of distortion, with breaks of silence carving empty space and establishing form.

Moving With The Current Of The River, contrastingly, captures his distinctive acoustic percussion based works - leveraging metallic beams, oversized floor toms and room mics to explore physicality, resonance and depth. Recorded in one mid-winter session in a concrete storage basement, organic karplus-strong style metallic transients are left hanging in the air while acoustic percussion via toms, congas and gongs complement the sonic cloud. Extended techniques are pushed and pulled via pieces of chain and a storage container of found metallic objects - at points even using the floor of the concrete cavern as instrumentation in its own right. Here we see the continuation of Rebeiro's long established questioning of where an instrument starts and ends - certainly not just for 'explorations sake', however. Stylistic motifs utilised via decades alongside MY DISCO intermittently rear their head here - albeit employed minus the immense weight of guitar tone and distortion.

Across the two discs, we can clearly see Rebeiro's distinct ability to link disparate sonic environments into a consistent language - all united by his polymathic style and personality. Music From Circa The End Of Earth Time / Moving With The Current Of The River is an essential chapter of Rebeiro's distinctive body of work, and only complements his restless intrigue with 'the drums'."

Nice Setting, 2023