Eric La Casa - Two Site Specific Projects for Public Spaces

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4...according to our Brett on Thu 14 Jan, 2010.

Mark E. Smith once sang about Oprah Winfrey studying bees and by the sound of Eric La Casa's 'Two Site Specific Projects for Public Spaces' CD he does as well. They're there, buzzing around and that. Bzz. Then they start beating their wings like BWOWBWOWBWOW. So yeah, 'Zone Sensible' is made up of bee recordings and demonstrates that the cute little guys are pretty talented synthesizers on the sly, with particularly impressive oscillator sections. 'Dundee 2' is apparently an attempt to create some kind of sound map of the city via field recordings, in collaboration with filmmaker Ken Jacobs. I imagine if their tourist board commissioned it they'd probably have been a bit gutted as it's not really presenting the place in the most appealing light.. It all sounds pretty cold and mechanical. He could have put a mic in a nice park or something. Fair dos for the bingo hall though, that's a positive attempt.

For the best part of a decade, Éric La Casa’s attention to sonic phenomena has resulted in some of the finest contemporary Musique Concréte to come out of France.

A listener of the highest order, La Casa’s methodology for sound recording allows for a versatile examination of both urban and natural environments and it is these interests which are captured on this new edition for Room40.

With an ability to find unique perspectives on his sound subjects La Casa’s site specific works ‘Zone Sensible’ and ‘Dundee’ seek to draw a detailed focus and expose unfamiliar, incidental and previously unheard sound worlds.

Zone Sensible, exclusively composed from recordings of bees in the Olivier Darné's hives, located in the Saint Denis suburb of Paris, reveals a chaotic, frenetic microcosm that speaks to the density of the real, whilst hinting at our ears to experience a dance of oscillations – wings beating with boundless energy.

As a contrast to this microcosm, Dundee, composed with recordings of Dundee city (during a 10 days residency at DCA museum), sees La Casa turn his microphones outward. Rendering a captivating sound map of sorts, ‘Dundee’ was developed in collaboration with USA Film experimentalist Ken Jacobs' “nervous magic lantern”, on a 6 channels device.

From these recordings LA Casa composed variations and movements in interaction with Ken Jacobs' processing – a contemplation from the real to abstracted life.

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