luminance ratio / steve roden — split 7″

steve roden / luminance ratio
7" vinyl
edition: limited
kinky grabber
2012

tracks:
  1. marvelous is flairs
  2. reoccuring dreams

kinky gabber and fratto9 under the sky are proud to present the first volume of the “seven inch series”, a series of limited and coloured 7″, in which the band luminance ratio collaborates with different artists and musicians from the electro-acoustic and ambient scene all over the world. this first chapter features a track by the american musician, artist and performer steve roden.

luminance ratio is guitarist luca mauri (guitars and effects), luca sigurtà (tapes, electronic junk, contact mics), gianmaria aprile (guitar, sitar, guqin, kaosspad) and andrea “ICS” ferraris (laptop, bass, electronics). the band presents the track “reoccuring dreams”, which walks the thin line between electro-acoustic avant-garde and dreamy psychedelia.

steve roden, by his side, presents the song “marvelous is flairs”: arch drones, vocal loops and field recordings driven by a melancholic pulsation.

  • reviews:
  • On the same label the first 7″ in ‘The Seven Inch Series’, a split between Luminance Ratio, who will be on every 7″, and a guest on the other side, in this case Steve Roden. Luminance Ratio is a band with Luca Mauri (guitar), Luca Sigurta (tapes, electronic junk, contact mics), Gianmaria Aprile (guitar, sitar, guqin, kaosspad) and Andrea Ferraris (laptop, bass, electronics). Their ‘Reoccuring Dreams’ is an odd piece of what seems to be a rock band trying their hands at combining a sort of krauty psychedelic piece without getting really started up and noise collage. The downside is that it sounds like an excerpt. Roden on the other side has a piece that uses guitar, voice and field recordings, and it sounds unlike him. A slow, repeated bang, loops of voices and a bow on the guitar. In an odd way one could say this is a very modern blues song. A great blues song. Excellent piece, daring new move from Roden! (FdW)

    frans de waard, vital weekly
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  • File under ambient-improv done right. Italy’s Luminance Ratio deftly launches a series of collaborative, colored-vinyl EPs with this first installment, a split with L.A.-based sound artist Steve Roden. Roden’s “Marvelous is Flairs” offers a Keith Rowe-esque scrape of guitar strings that loop and phase in and out with one another; a muffled “clunk” that might originate from the field recordings he’s credited with serves as the only percussion. His breathy, high-register vocal melody founders along to a weird chatter of digital artifacts near the close of the track. The medium’s brevity suits this piece well, and it’s over well before your attention span. The four-member Luminance Ratio responds in kind with “Reoccuring Dreams,” a soundtrack-ready piece that unfolds like an electroacoustic origami sculpture, with sparse bell-like guitar chording and electronic tones that crescendo and cascade gently into a chorus of friction against resonant metals. But here, we have the opposite problem, where the piece fades to silence (perhaps edited for this EP?) just as things are getting interesting. Oh well, always leave ‘em wanting more. As well you should, from this intriguing ensemble. Swell sounds that sound swell on deep blue vinyl at 33rpm, and in an edition of 200.

    adam macgregor
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