Emanuele de Raymondi — Buyukberbe​r Variations

This cd comes in the unusual form of a digipak in a slipcase; but despite all this potential space, it really carries only the barest of details. The album contains ten tracks, composed by de Raymondi using clarinet improvisations by Oguz Buyukberber as source material. These improvisations were “recorded in a 10 seconds reverberation room” and whilst this might suggest an album of hearty drone to you, de Raymondi comes up with something quite different.

The most obvious spectre hanging over “Buyukberber Variations” is glitchy electronica. The original clarinet sounds are often chopped and folded into blipping judders, and layered against each other; the opening track, “BV_01”, is a perfect example of this - building with a majesty akin to a film theme. This approach obviously raises the notion of “beats”, and de Raymondi does venture into this territory. On “BV_03”, theres a skipping “kick drum” beat, which soon gets joined by a series of metallic hits, like a dark, lo-tech gamelan; and on the following, short, piece, he lurches into a skittering, jumpy funk. Some of the obvious precedents for glitching, were the works of some classical minimalists and “BV_06” evokes these morphing, shifting patterns. Over a train-like series of rhythms, de Raymondi sprinkles close-mic’ed clarinet noises; contrasting the grandeur of the repetitions, both magical and melancholy in melody, with the almost clinical micro-sounds of the unaffected clarinet. This sense of “earthiness” also comes to the fore on “BV_08”, where the clarinet recordings are transformed into wheezing accordions and clacking percussion.

So, whilst de Raymondi goes to great pains to avoid the obvious drone route, there are a few tracks which allow the space of Buyukberber’s improvisations to shine through, uncompressed. “BV_07” creates a nicely haunting, breathy piece; whilst “BV_09” moves from gentle, tentative tones to tangled little loops of clarinet. Its at this point, that I have to confess that I’m more interested in hearing the raw room recordings…

This is a solid enough album, but nothing really too exciting. Its title and track titles nod towards academic exercises and really, thats what we have here. Despite this, and constrained by its “no additional…effects were added” approach, this is not remotely a hard-boiled album of electroacoustic exploration. Rather its a somewhat middle-ground approach that references glitching electronica and minimalism; rhythmically interesting, but melodically rather unadventurous