Error Log by Banabila & Machinefabriek

Contemporary, experimental.

Tapu presents the third album by Banabila & Machinefabriek. Whereas its predecessor Travelog had a charming brightness, Error Log is abstract and dystopian. The album is comprised of three long monolithic tracks, based on electronics and heavy sampling of acoustic instruments. Howling bass clarinet, warped voices, cinematic strings, Muppet drums and glitchy electronics are used to create a delirious sound universe. Keimpe de Jong (wind instruments), Edita Karkoschka (voice), Salar Asid (violin), Umit Sav (electric violin) and Oene van Geel (violin) all contribute their masterful sounds.

The cd comes in a 3 panel full colour matte digipak, with found error negative scans by Michel Banabila, designed by Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek). Total time 39 minutes

Quotes / reviews :

FLUID RADIO:
Straight away “Error Log” announces a very different musical experience from Banabila and Machinefabriek’s previous ambient-inspired collaborations from a couple of years ago. This time the electronics are thick and grungy, with greater exploration of each timbre and texture; strong contrasts are created with warm string chords and glimmering guitar that go straight for the heart-strings. Falling vocals and muttered words are drawn straight from the acousmatic playbook, but the overall tone is much closer to analogue synthedelica: warm, squelchy, and sculpted into vague, shallow peaks and valleys rather than precise formations. If the path followed by “Music for viola and electronics II” seemed relatively fixed and linear, “Error Log” is an album for drifters and wanderers; where the former fixes an image, the latter leaves an impression. Well worth checking out. (Nathan Thomas)

CALEIDOSCOOP:
Banabila & Machinefabriek brengen op beide vorige CDs een mix van abstracte elektronica, experimentele ambient, veldopnames en ludieke samples, die ze op hun unieke wijze fraai vormgeven. Nu is de derde cd Error Log een heugelijk feit. Je krijgt 3 langgerekte tracks waarin ze de elektronica harder op de voorgrond stellen. Daarnaast stappen ze van die meer kille en robuuste elektronica op subtiele wijze ook weer over naar prachtig warme akoestische stukken. Hiervoor mogen ze rekenen op bijdragen van Keimpe de Jong (blaasinstrumenten), Edita Karkoschka (stem), Salar Asid (viool), Umit Sav (elektrische viool) en Oene van Geel (viool). De rijk gedetailleerde composities blijven mede door dit contrast maar ook door de prachtige vondsten (bijvoorbeeld knetterend haardvuur dat overgaat in elektronisch geknetter) spannend tot op de laatste seconde. Daarnaast is het ook gewoon weer een bij de strot grijpend en schoon elektro-akoestisch hoorspel. Een klasse apart die twee! (JanWillem Broek)

UTILITY FOG / FBI Radio :
Dutch experimental artists Michel Banabila & Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek have been collaborating for a few years now, and each album seems to change tack in quite a dramatic fashion – although never diverging too much from the two artists' formidable talents. They started with a droney, experimental release, followed by something more in keeping with Banabila's jazzy world-tronica, and the new one is again more abstract, featuring a number of talented Dutch musicians on wind instruments, strings, and voice. The acoustic instruments are mangled in their machines but it's lovely to hear them cutting through here and there. (Peter Hollo)

VITAL WEEKLY 984:
This is the third collaborative effort of Michel Banabila and Rutger Zuydervelt, also known as Machinefabriek. The first two were released in 2013, in a time span of nine months (see Vital Weekly 860 and 898), but no doubt it's not easy to get these two busy bees together, hyper active as they seem in working with electronic music, collaborating with others and playing live. There was, I think, quite some difference between the first two releases; the first one was perhaps what we could expect from both of them: ambient like, digital noise, improvised and yet very much composed. 'Travelog', the second one (the first being untitled) seemed less abstract, more songs (as in 'songs' as in 'pop') like, with great little melodies somewhere. So the third one was highly anticipated by me. 'Error Log' has three pieces (divided in such a way that it says 'release me on LP too, please'), which are quite long, compared to the shorter songs on the previous release. It's however not exactly a return to their first release either; it seems they are exploring the ambient side here more and more, but also in a more orchestral way, especially in 'Stemmenspel' and the title piece. 'Animal', the eleven-minute opening piece here works with more loosely improvised sound embedded in larger clouds of sound. It's all right, but not their finest moment. The violins and voices of 'Stemmenspel' (play of/with voices) have an orchestral feeling, along with those swift changes we know from Zuydervelt, the melody of Banabila and the electronic treatments of both. It moves the listener gently through an excellent set of moods and textures, almost like a soundtrack. The field recordings of the title piece are just a start to move into quite a cosmos of drones (courtesy of the guitar), small rhythms and rainy day recordings; Here too a fine trip, spanning some nineteen minutes but perhaps less soundtrack material. Having said that: it's an excellent piece, which once again brings out the best of both composers. Perhaps this third CD is less of a surprise, but it explores their joint interests further. (FdW)

MUSIC WON'T SAVE YOU:
È ormai un sodalizio consolidato quello tra Rutger Zuydervelt e Michel Banabila: “Error Log” rappresenta la terza tappa della collaborazione tra i due artisti olandesi, nonché quella più organica dal punto di vista della durata dei brani e dell’integrazione tra suoni ed elementi, apportati anche da un piccolo ensemble da camera. Archi, fiati, ritmiche, glitch elettronici e tanto altro ancora innervano i tre lunghi brani del lavoro, il primo dei quali, “Animal” ne descrive già elementi salienti, sotto forma di una straniante enfasi ritmica e di un progressivo svaporamento verso una dimensione orchestrale. Si tratta, tuttavia, del principale momento di quiete, in qualche misura armonica, del lavoro, visto che fremiti incalzanti riconducono immediatamente i sette minuti di “Stemmenspel” a una dimensione di astratta allucinazione, mentre i diciannove minuti della conclusiva title track condensano un contorto arsenale di tensione latente, al quale risulta funzionale lo stesso tourbillon di improvvisazioni acustiche dell’ensemble che accompagna il duo. Nell’incontro tra suggestioni cinematiche e spigolose astrazioni elettro-acustiche di “Error Log” sono senz’altro le seconde a prevale, per quanto diluite in una composita materia sonora in costante, rapida trasformazione. (Raffaello Russo)

KINDAMUZIK:
Vastloper. Glitch. Foutje. Horten en stoten. Hakkelen. Wat is er nou weer aan de hand? Check het Error Log. Een hoop rare tekens en commando's, waarvan de gemiddelde gebruiker nog geen chocola kan maken. Enter: Michel Banabila en Rutger Zuydervelt. Zorgden zij samen met Travel Log nog voor een werkstuk met uitgesponnen lijnenspellen, op de nieuwe duet-lp is zijn die verhakseld, opgeknipt, stukgedraaid en verstoord; als sneeuw die door tv-beeld krast en zand in de machinerie. In de drie abstracte composities staat een zekere neiging tot drone op de achtergrond te springen om aandacht, om in beeld te komen. Meer dan eens ketsen vooraan echter noise en vooral glitches in de rondte. Daartussen golft diverse elektronica, gesampled akoestisch instrumentarium en wellicht nog het een en ander aan veldopnames rond. De opbouw zorgt voor diepte, als een kijkdoos waarin bijzonder knap de organische, analoge touch regeert. Alsof de knipsels net niet helemaal perfect uitgeknipt zijn, zo trekken de beelden celluloidachtig voorbij, inclusief krassen en tikken, stofjes en jump cuts. Denk: Karl Lemieux (de man die de films bij Godspeed You! Black Emperorconcerten live bestiert) in klank. Banabila en Machinefabriek presenteren drie schuifpuzzeltjes in 3D. Plaatjes zijn het die je kent en die bijna gekmakend door de war liggen. De constituerende fragmenten krijg je allemaal, bijna in één ooropslag. Je hebt wel in de smiezen dat het goed zit, maar dat gevoel krijg je bepaald niet. In deze dystopie zit echter geen wanhoop. Immers, in die weerbarstig versnipperde tracks ligt ergens heus een rode draad met scherpe tekening. Musique concrète kortom met een narratieve lijn alsof je met The Savage Detectives en House of Leaves in de lezershand ronddoolt door de kerkers van Piranesi, terwijl je net als Orpheus weet dat je niet moet omkijken. (Sven Schlijper)

NIEUWE NOTEN:
‘Error Log’ is het derde album dat Banabila uitbrengt met Rutger Zuydervelt, oftewel Machinefabriek. Het is een stuk experimenteler dan ‘Music for Viola and Electronics II’ maar ook dan de voorgangers van dit duo, het eerste titelloze album en het tweede, met de titel ‘Travelog’. Waren dit albums met als basis ambient, op dit album is de meer rauwere elektronica de basis van de drie nummers. Weliswaar aangevuld met samples van akoestische instrumenten en stem, aangeleverd door een aantal gasten. Zo horen we in het titelnummer ‘Error Log’ Keimpe de Jong en Oene van Geel weer voorbij komen. En in ‘Stemmenspel’ speelt zangeres Edita Kokoschka een belangrijke rol. De klank in ‘Stemmenspel’ is onbestemd, donker als een donderwolk, waar Kokoschka’s stem zo nu en dan in korte fragmenten in doorklinkt. (Ben Taffijn)

GONZO CIRCUS 129:
Error Log is de derde samenwerking tussen Michel Banabila en Rutger Zuydervelt, alias Machinefabriek. Op dit album staan drie lange stukken waarin de heren ons op uiteenlopende manieren hun meesterschap bewijzen in de elektronische muziek. Dit keer hebben ze veel gebruik gemaakt van gesamplede akoestische instrumenten. Qua uitwerking ziet dat er in het elf minuten durende 'Animal' als volgt uit: een log industrieel en orkestraal intro gaat over in een langdurig deel met allerlei geimproviseerde elektronische effecten en geluiden. Vervolgens word het weer rustig dankzij ruige ambient klanken. Na een korte improv-fase rukken langzaam, uit de computer, de strijkers op die voor een sfeervol bijna klassiek slotstuk zorgen. Bij het nummer 'Stemmenspel' worden gastvocalisten gebruikt die echter onherkenbaar verwerkt zijn in en tussen de elektronica die op het hoogte-punt brult als een opstijgende Boeing. In het titelstuk komen alle voorgaande elementen weer terug en wordt er tevens flink met drones gewerkt. (Oscar Smit)

WE NEED NO SWORDS
Three tracks of chunky electronics from this collab from earlier in the year, which coincidentally provided a welcome reintroduction to the Machinefabriek oevre after a bit of an unintentional hiatus on my part. It’s good to be back, anyhow, and here Rotterdammer Michel Banabila brings some crunchier, asymmetric shapes to the smooth minimalism that we have to come to expect from Rutger Zuydervelt’s solo work. These instrumental pieces are almost songlike in their ebb and flow, their grind and squelch sometimes bringing to mind a more aggressive take on Cluster’s gleaming kosmische stream.
Animal is right there up in yer grill, an initial hectic mash of snaggletooth waveforms and angular beats quickly dropping down into brooding surges of reverberating metronome and grumbling synth drone. Restless, chattering textures spiral out in endlessly generating forms, loops whose centres can’t hold and gradually decaying chord sequences. Towards the end, a gorgeous swell of violins and keys appears from nowhere in a cloud of post-rock grandeur, before dissipating into wide-eyed droplets of melody. Stemmenspel, by contrast, is silvery and malign, pitching layers of hisses and descending high tones against a bed of undulating horn-like moos and ominous locomotive percussion, the sounds of stars crying out as they burn up in the atmosphere or tumble to an uncaring earth.
The album’s 18-minute title track is the main attraction, however, placing field recordings alongside sizzling digital sounds and metallic clonks and bongs in a perpetually evolving landscape. It’s cinematic at certain points, and although the narrative the duo are soundtracking isn’t immediately obvious t to us listeners, it’s still compelling stuff.
At first, there’s a touch of Will Montgomery’s work in sculpting field recordings in the way that the rustles of the wind and far-off traffic sounds meld with a repeated metallic ringing, a struck bowl perhaps, as well as malevolent electrical fizzes. The light-touch approach disappears after the first five minutes, however, with the extrusion of a deep low end throb into the texture of the piece, warping it out of shape even as it runs out of steam, shifting again into a woozy synth drift, the shimmer of its eternal sustain crisscrossed with gentle piano chords. These shifts in tone are dramatic, and get more so as the piece goes on, with sampled sounds of burning transmuted into doomy chords then low-key drones. The transitions never feel forced, somehow, and there’s at least an attempt at an emotional payoff as the separate chunks of sound are sewn together. This is an enigmatic and austere work, and if by the end we’re left wandering what exactly we’ve just experienced, well, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. (popsmargree)

In addition to acoustic instrumentation, Michel Banabila uses samples, electronics, synths, found objects and field recordings.

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