marc barreca | subterrane

2010 : new release

Composed with layers of computer processed, chopped and looped sounds including samples from field recordings, as well as studio recordings of accordion and other acoustic and electronic instruments Subterrane merges acoustic with electronic sensibilities into a singular music of timbral and textural sleight-of-hand. Source sounds include trains, subways, glass bottles, bamboo and bronze percussion instruments, rattles, and other folk instruments. For “Twilight Reprise” samples from his 1980 Palace of Lights album, Twilight, are recycled and reprocessed. Other pieces also include recycled slices from previous live and studio recordings but bear little resemblance to the earlier pieces from which they are borrowed. Mastered by Taylor Deupree.

Marc Barreca, field recorder and electroacoustician, here becomes riven with Subterrane and its minimalist percussive glitch, whisper-thin sound samples and rich plumes of exhausted harmonics. Barreca’s fidelity remains consistent throughout, practicing invention and stylistic diversity in providing loosely textured, lithe limbed context for the field recordings, and thus casting an appealingly rough, warm sound. Subterrane is a cagey, supple, and stirring release.

— Max Schaefer

Barreca’s real strength lies in creating depth of field. The foreground may be dominated by glassy chimes or resonant prayer-bowl like timbres, but beyond it a series of veils seem to recede towards murky imperceptibility. There’s also a kind of surreal decorum at play, passages that sound like an immaculately laid dinner table being shaken by an earth tremor while the tinkling complaints of the silver, glass and muffling linen are scrupulously recorded.

— Sam Davies, The Wire

marc barreca : subterrane

subterrane

tracks
near greenwater
fractured bronze
allen's strange land
subterrane
linear breathing
glimmerglass
jumbled
the sadness of things
twilight reprise
shapes falling down
play
subterrane (edit)
purchase CD $ 16.00
  Flac download $ 8.00
  MP3 download $ 8.00
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Palace of Lights

© 2012 Marc Barreca