Machinefabriek, III
(with Peter Broderick) Review
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Dutch composer Rutger Zuydervelt is a composer that uses any means necessary to create his aural architecture. Rutger Zuydervelt, AKA Machinefabriek, uses cassette recorders, tone generators, radios, synths, and other hi-fi curio to build a soundscape around the human voice being used as an instrument. Machinefabriek is releasing a new album in January of 2019, that will be titled With Voices. Until then, he is releasing single from the album titled, “III.” The album will be eight tracks built around vocal works from Peter Broderick, Marissa Nadler, Richard Youngs, Chantal Acda, Terence Hannum (of Locrian) and others. These human voices are featured as musical instruments rather than mere vehicles of lyrical content, resulting in a sub-linguistic mosaic of primordially stirring moods. Zuydervelt was inspired to create the album when he was creating music for a dance company and watched an Instagram video featuring Wei-Yun Chen. The idea stirred Zuydervelt to create a single 35-minute soundscape upon which each vocalist on With Voices was encouraged to improvise, be it talking, reading, singing, or wordless, guttural intoning. Such vocal smatterings were then used to determine how the other tonal elements should be arranged, dictating where each musical passage would ultimately lead. “The idea was for everyone to just do what came naturally” he recalls, “the element of unpredictability was important to me.” “III” is an imaginative composition that uses the human voice to create rhythms, harmony and melody, the result is creative and astonishingly fresh. That’s the short of it!
Positives:
Zuydervelt is pushing the boundaries of combining improvisational aspects of the human voice with written and constructed sounds to form a beautiful musical tapestry.
Bottom Line:
Dutch composer Rutger Zuydervelt’s soundscape titled “III” features multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick in an array of musical sounds generated by the human voice. “III” begins with Zuydervelt using Peter Broderick’s vocal noise and speaking to create a rhythmic structure that is than developed to create a pulse for the composition to live within. Vocal sounds are often stretched to sustained notes or sound effects. The tune builds with Broderick speaking words as percussion and sounds float in and around him. The harmony has movement, but never establishes a traditional harmonic framework. This allows Zuydervelt to focus on sounds and not harmonic progressions. The climax is a wall of sounds that generates beautiful chords which lead to a delightful melody that is sung with Middle Eastern overtones. This section does have a clear harmonic flow and purpose. The result is a wonderful composition that makes our senses process sounds in a variety of ways, but always pushing the listener to dig deeper and experience the music in the moment. With this single, Zuydervelt has certainly spiked our sensory to discover the remaining seven tracks and his ability to create, With Voices