Enrico Coniglio — Teredo Navails
Teredo Navails takes us down in the depths of a Venetian Lagoon- utilizing & blending sounds recorded via electromagnetic sensors, binaural microphones, hydrophones, contact, and condenser microphones- the CD/ digital release offers up a collection of five soundscapes. The album falls somewhere between lightly simmering 'n' churning drone matter, hovering & at time piercing tone studies, & water/ pipe field recording. The idea of a release based around water recordings normally has one expecting lulling, subtle & soothingly tonal work, but this release is often fairly pressing & at times searing in it’s feel.
The release appears on the highly respected field recording & sound art label Gruenrekorder.The CD comes in a six-panel mini gatefold- this features a low key green, grey & white color scheme, with a blend of murky pictures of the lagoon, a short write up about the project, a sea reed like art- all making for a sleek & artily understated bit of packaging.
The albums five tracks run between three & eleven minutes apiece. We start off with the longest track here- the spot eleven-minute runtime of “Fraima”- this begins with a blend of distant aquatic knocking, water trickle & slow grainy rush. As the track progresses a series of slow creaks come into play- building up the sound picture. By the fourth minute, things turn a little more noise bound & active- as we move into a fairly busy blend of fiddling & buzzing tones, slow sweeping waves drones- that move between pressing low & high pitched dwells. At times you forget your listening to lagoon recordings, and think you could almost be listening to dense electro-acoustic sound art or maybe slurred synth-based composition. Track Three “Teredo Navalis (i)” starts busy from the off with a dense & building mix of grainy ‘n’ watery rushes, & textual creeks ‘n’ snaps- this stands as one of my favorite moments here, as the focus remains more the rushing & textured tones, through around the midway point in this eight-minute track we get some high pitched sweeps of tone. Towards the end, the more busy feel drops back, and we get a rather eerie selection of knocks & creeks appearing. The final track here is “Teredo Navalis (iii)”- and this most certainly goes more towards the noise end of things- as we find a looped ringing & grating drone element, this is surrounded by distant knocks & a building layer of high pitch sustain, as well as these weird electro twitting alien bird-like tones.
With Teredo Navails Enrico Coniglio has largely stepped away from what one would normally expect from water-based recordings- ie subtle & soothing tone studies, droplet-based semi rhythmic matter, or more ambient drift. I’d say you’ll have to enjoy either active & shifting textual studies, or more detailed & at times searing drone matter to get the most out of this release- but if you're looking for something more sedated & moody you may be disappointed.