MYSTERY SEA 51| jgrzinich | [phase inversion]
ARTWORK 
front 
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INTRODUCTORY
WORDS
- "Three tracks of moderate fluctuations of sound in temporal space, infected by the occasional far from equilibrium interventions to diversify the stasis."
"Research notes : Most structural compositions of phase inversion have focused on slow shifts in macrotonal formations, while the rich microstructure has received little independent attention. Presented here is a mystified and emotive soundscape of possible microstructures formed on the basis of margin transformations, kinetic ties, and spatial considerations. Special attention is given to the microstructural features resulting from a three-stage phase separation. Subsequently, these considerations are extended to the microstructure of the inner ear and that of its corresponding neurocellular boundaries. Finally, the features of actual phase inversion structures are heard, imagined and hence interpreted. Phase inversion can be regarded as a form of the instability in the composer, the stability of the process being least at the point of mentalprojection. On the other hand, knowledge of the phase inversion point is essential in the preparation of dispersions in order to obtain the desired listening effect. The fundamental difficulty in understanding phase inversion lies in the problem of conceptualizing the actual mechanism behind the process. Various recording and sound assembly methods are used to generate a trajectory in phase space, which samples from a chosen array of possibilities. This constitutes the random motion of the sounds within the dispersion lattice."
-jgrzinich, July 2008
PRESS RELEASE
Currently involved in workshops,
and coordinator for MoKS - Center For Arts and Social Practice, an artist-run
international residency center and project space in Southeast Estonia,
John Grzinich is a nomadic mixed-media explorer whose
main tool of expression is sound composition declined in various forms
: manipulation of acoustic, environmental sounds & found objects,
phonographies, construction of original instrument devices, site-specific
installations & performances, collaborative sound actions...
Active since the early 1990s, he has collaborated with many artists
& famous names in this sphere such as michael northam, Seth Nehil,
Olivia Block... he travelled also intensively through Europe, and published
CDs on a plethora of labels, namely for instance : Intransitive Recordings,
Elevator Bath, Orogenetics (US), Cloud Of Statics, Cut (CH), Edition
Sonoro (UK), Sirr (PT), CMR (NZ), Erewhon (BE), Prele, Tâalem
(FR)...
For Mystery Sea, John Grzinich has plunged deep into its own creative process to come back with "phase inversion", an haunting & soothing thorough sound litany...
Sinking slowly within,
oscillating slightly,
in a continuous imperturbable movement
at the heart of an unseen core
lies a point of entry,
a source of multiple diffractions...
-
Rubbings, vesperal sighs,
microcollisions, metallic asperities,
elemental debris,
tiny fragments recombine in a wordless score...
-
"phase inversion" turns things upside down,
makes Below becoming the Above,
draws a precise, refined outline
where each detail is like the echo of a new path...
a cognitive retraction...
TRACKS
01. dispersion
trajectory 
02. membrane formation
03. spectral remnants
LENGTH
49'34
REVIEWS
VITAL WEEKLY 671|Frans
De Waard
Active since many years now, through
solo work and various collaborations (with Michael Northam, Seth Nehil
and Olivia Block) and many releases (on Intransitive, Elevator Bath,
Orogenetics, Cloud Of Statics, Edition Sonoro, Sirr, CMR etc), John
Grzinich, also known as Jgrzinich, is a settled
artist. He lives in Estonia these days, where he works on his music
and as an organizer. It is not revealed what his sound sources are,
nor what kind of process Jgrzinich uses, this new work
is exactly what it is that Jgrzinich does. A bunch
of acoustic objects, bells, wood, metal, stones, are being played manually
and then the sound gets processed with various electronics and layered
into thick swirling drone pieces. Jgrzinich never stands
'still', its always on the move. Small crackles from field recordings,
majestic drones from electronics, with always something new happening.
This is a Jgrzinich as we would have expected. Perhaps
a bit like the release by Steve Roden reviewed elsewhere, one
could say that Jgrzinich doesn't change his mode of
operation very much, which might be necessary by now. But without that
one could easily say this is another damn fine disc. Perhaps not as
aquatic as many of the other releases on Mystery Sea.
vital weekly
JUST OUTSIDE|Brian
Olewnick
Three pieces, which I hear as something
of a suite (though there's no indication of such), lasting about 20,
20 and 10 minutes. I picked up a kind of "Bohor" vibe here,
a very attractive one, though in a narrative kind of way, doubtless
unintended by Grzinich. I always imagined the great
Xenakis work as a massive mechanical process, perhaps a huge burr boring
(burr-boring-bohor, you see) into the earth. In the first track of Grzinich's
set, "dispersion trajectory", it's as though we're looking
back in on the Bohor sinkhole centuries later, the tunnel having acquired
a hollower tone (a wonderful one), its roughness not quite as rocky
as before but still capable of throwing up the odd gnar or knot of metallic
shavings. There's a underlying swell here, though one that possesses
a grinding aspect that funnels back an amount of scree as it proceeds.
The second, "membrane formation", seems to revisit the site
a few decades hence; the detritus is still encountered, though it's
taken on the tones of metal casings playing in the wind against the
side of a boat, but the hum has become smoothed a bit, maybe the tunnel
has been tiled. The final visit, "spectral remnants", is millennia
hence, the tunnel having been thoroughly scoured, the solar wind whistling
through, only echoes of its former granularity remaining.
....I like music that summons forth images
like this! :-) Fine work, recommended for those who enjoy Olivia Block,
among others.
just outside
IN
PLACE|Jez
Riley French
'Phase inversion'
(Mystery Sea 51) is the latest disc from John Grzinich,
currently resident in Estonia & part of the MoKS team. Having
just spent a few weeks in residence at MoKS & going on several field
recording trips with John it's still a mystery to me
what sounds are used on his releases. I can guess at extended tensioned
wires & large plates of metal on scrap piles but the exact sources
remain to be pondered. Listening to this new release, a set of three
intense pieces that fit in to but also expand on Mystery Seas penchant
for drone based works, one is aware that this is field recording based
work that seeks to be music in & of itself. I dare say, without
reading the sleeve notes, most folks would believe the sounds to have
been generated by other means. There's an impressive choice of source
material on display. Generally I'm not someone who always needs to know
what object / process makes which sound but I have to admit that these
pieces contain such seamlessly blended elements that I am left trying
to work out what environmental sources I'm actually listening to. Having
spent some time with John & also witnessed a great
live performance from him I have to say that if you're interested check
this release out of course, but better still try to get to one of his
workshops or concerts. The combination of experiencing all these aspects
of his work leaves one wanting to know more.
in place
CYCLICDEFROST
|Max
Schaefer
John Grzinich’s Phase
Inversion is a giant murmuring, always on the verge of blooming,
though largely because it seems always to be fading, growing darker
the deeper it dives, where steel scrapes and grey glitches break its
surface and paradoxically makes the cold, barren atmosphere more intimate.
If the climate of three works here is somewhat cryptic, it is a good
deal more inescapable. Pieces pass with an incessant, circular motion,
but it’s a motion done on the spot, heading nowhere. The first
selection is the strongest. A solemn undertow spaded with placid tones
hovers in the distance. A deceptively mischievous manner appears to
hold it in place, though steadily it encroaches, not so much transforming
as revealing a network of growling mechanical distortions occasionally
pocked with echoing synthetic pings.
The closing pair of works are hewn from the same dark matter, but their
rubbings are more feint, corroded, as though they now stood at a certain
distance from themselves. As fine as they are, there is a sense in which
they aren’t quite heavy enough to fully make good on the potential
of the albums initial stirrings. This remains, still, a fine example
of Grzinich’s never overwhelming, but far from
benevolent, rattling streams of sonic distillation.
cyclic
defrost
WONDERFUL
WOODEN REASONS|Ian
Holloway
Jgrzinich is a name
that's been hovering around the edges of my attention for quite some
time now but it took the ever wonderful Mystery Sea label to finally
wave him in front of me. Phase Inversion is a
set of three contrasting compositions. The first, 'Dispersion
Trajectory', is a long undulating drone marked by the addition of skitteringly
amorphous insectile sounds. The second, 'Membrane Formation', is a melding
of washing tone and drone with clattering and sawing instrumentation
and the third, 'Spectral Remnants', is a short, gentle set of gong-like
tonal ripples.
I found the first to be a little too cold and remote for my tastes the
slow addition of the scuttling extra sounds helps open the track up
but I prefer a little more warmth in my music. The second is easily
my favourite track here. It seems fairly minimal in it's strategies
but there's a humanity to it's composition that envelops the listener.
The final track offers a small coda to the album that's perfectly formed
and full of interest but is a little too brief to fully immerse oneself
in.
If I have seemed a little negative towards this album then I apologize.
It's fair to say that Phase Inversion isn't my favourite
album this month as, for the most part, it all feels a little too clinical
for my tastes and I struggling to hear the composers personality but,
it is extremely well made and most definitely a worthwhile listen as
are all Mystery Sea releases.
wonderful wooden reasons
BRAIN
DEAD ETERNITY|Massimo
Ricci
Among the genuine masters of this game, acquired
Estonian John Grzinich gives a showing of his strength
with a gorgeous accumulation of drones and found objects, the latter
mostly verging on the softly metallic/distantly clattering side of concreteness.
The record presents exactly what was expected, this commentator well
acquainted with a good number of the artist’s past releases (published
on the best labels in this field, from Cut to Sirr, to Elevator Bath
– you name it, he’s been there); yet there’s something
distinguishing his work which is called class. I don’t know how
to explain it, this has probably to do with a deeper perception of the
vibrating particles of a particular source, or the shape of a chosen
environment, or maybe just comes from a highly developed inner ear.
A Jgrzinich drone sounds dissimilar from a regular
buzzing hum: it appears more like the layering of a thousand desolate
murmurs bathed in amniotic liquid.
The static façade hides hundreds of inherent movements, muted
throbs, sub-harmonic changes that nevertheless make the whole sound
as an immobile stifled choir, silently spreading resonances which, in
conjunction with the dissipating energies represented by those faraway
rattles and clangs, represent a memento of how to behave ourselves in
front of the vague, a symbol of the unconcern we should always demonstrate
when the worst is approaching, be it the fear of an uncertain future
or the sheer notion of death. Perhaps a record like Phase Inversion
could help someone to get in touch with that inside dimension which
is inevitably left aside when one is intent in “living”
by filling the brain with figments of imagination and innumerable illusions,
only to be given a final bill at the end, still ill-equipped and even
more frightened.
In actual fact, life itself is a phase inversion. On the contrary, many
people are convinced of giving lessons to others, not realizing that
what they believe to have “invented” is just the chewed-up
remnant of a truth that everybody sees in a wholly individual way -
all of them completely wrong - and that will finally rape everyone’s
abstruse beliefs concerning human evolution and a presumed afterlife
- not to mention reincarnation - except for the obvious transformation
of the corporal matter into food for worms (or ash, if you’re
sophisticated enough) and energy into some substance that might be useful
or less, according to the quintessence of that erstwhile “being”.
brain
dead eternity
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