Abdul Moimême Mekhaanu – La forêt des mécanismes sauvages

Unknown Artist

ABDUL MOIMÊME Mekhaanu – La forêt des mécanismes sauvages Abdul Moimême : Fender Stratocaster and a self made solid body electric guitar, both amplified separately and prepared with small and large objects. In track #2, prepared Gibson Les Paul and a Rickenbacker lap guitar inside a grand piano. Recorded by Joaquim Monte at Namouche Studio, Lisbon, 27th August 2011. Mixed by d’incise, Mastering by Joaquim Monte. As an adolescent I attended a Barre Phillips concert in Lisbon. Perplexed by what I had just heard, I went backstage to ask him about the sources of his inspiration. His answer mainly referred to natural phenomena such as the ‘sunrise’ and ‘birds singing’, with Igor Stravinsky’s name included somewhere in between. Expecting to hear the names of other outstanding musicians, I was slightly disappointed with the reply because I considered music as something complacently detached from the surrounding world. Ironically, I now find it increasingly difficult to discern the barriers between the two. The more I listen to the ‘sonic ecosystems’ we live in, the more I discover fascinating relationships and random juxtapositions that spontaneously align in my ears as ‘readymade compositions’. My current improvisations are frequently compared to the sounds of moving mechanisms. When I play I have no such intention in mind, but the analogy is a reasonable reminder of how, in a digitalized era, the majority of the world’s labour force still works under 19th Century conditions, pulling and tugging at roaring machines. Apart from this sobering fact, industrial sites tend to be interesting places, both spatially and sonically, otherwise industrial archaeology might never have existed. Whether we like it or not, our daily lives are also permeated by mechanical sounds. If we care to pay attention to their patterns, we will begin to hear the first murmurs of “la forêt des mécanismes sauvages”, a territory where wild mechanisms live unbridled by any human restraint. Irrespective of this imagery, I invite listeners to freely create their own associations as the present soundscapes unfold. As in my previous solo work, Nekhephthu (cs 102), all the pieces contained in this release are improvised. Playing two prepared guitars simultaneously, I usually decide each setup on the spur-of-the-moment; avoiding the use of already tested and thus ‘contaminated’ combinations. The only electronics used here include the dry sounds of two amplifiers and a pre-amp, which can sometimes be overdriven. Otherwise, no pedals, loops or overdubs have been used and thus the effects you hear are exclusively obtained from the resonance of the objects or instruments with which I modulate the guitars’ natural timbre, played in a ‘live’ setting. Abdul Moimême, Lisbon, 19 January 2012 Musician from Lisbon, he elaborated during the previous years a specific set-up based on two prepared electric guitars and a bunch of objects as springs, metalic bars and plates, etc. He create a music full of mecanic and industrial images, straight out of his double instrument, without any other electronic devices. He published a few records on Creative Sources and Insubordinations, with Axel Dörner, Ernesto Rodriguez, Heddy Boubaker, Diatribes, IKB, Variable Geometry Orchetra, etc, and is also architect, saxophonist and writer for a couple of portugues jazz papers