Released
1998
Label
Artware
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Artware
Taunusstr. 63b
65183 Wiesbaden
Germany
Tel.: +0611/524133
Fax: +0611/59654
Last Edit/Update
08 June, 1998
SAT Stoicizmo
MAH 2
Track Listing
1. 9:36:57 Po Srednjeevropskom
2. Avionom
3. Nehaj
4. Futur Egzakni
SAT Stoicizmo was a trio of Croatian futurist composers active between
1981 and 1987, the liner notes of this challenging CD explains. Mah 2 was recorded
in 1984-5, and is an exceedingly complex work based on four of the core concepts of
futurism: simultaneity, acceleration, power and machinery. Furthermore, the four
compositions on Mah 2 -- which was originally intended as a double-LP with each
piece closing in endless exit grooves -- were arranged according to morse-code patterns.
The result is a deeply fascinating work that really only comes to its right, if listened
to with complete attention and concentration.
Due to the minutely detailed
quality of SAT Stoicizmo's music, the accompanying text advises the
listener to listen at high volume. It is also recommended to play the CD both through
speakers and headphones at the same time, in order to achieve a heightened simultanistic
listening experience. The legitimacy of these instructions is immediately apparent when
playing the CD; the music is both deeply layered and strikingly dynamic.
"9:36:57 po
Srednjeevropskom" (which translates into "9:36:57 Central European Time")
opens with wailing air raid sirens, and it is a sound that is familiar by the end of the
CD, as it serves as a consistent motif throughout most of Mah 2, and especially on
this first track. Fifteen minutes long, "9:36:57 po Srednjeevropskom" is a
kaleidoscopic aural collage, the details of which are interrupted at times by the
aforementioned sirens. The piece moves through sequential patterns of dynamic acoustic
percussions, montages of radio tunings, racing piano arrangements, harsh streaming
electronics, and so on. Perhaps, if all of these segments between the sirens were placed
all on top of each other -- with the sirens as reference points -- and played
simultaneously, the piece would be a composite sonic photograph of Central Europe at
9:36:57.
The second piece
"Avionom" ("By Airplane") begins with a segment of intensely cut-up
recordings of an airplane breaking through the sound barrier. The musical and rhythmic
qualities of this explosive sound are explored and deconstructed to the point where the
source sound becomes a continuous, pulsating, strobe-like tone. Eventually, the piece
breaks into an extended drum sequence, still with the distant echoes of jet engines
audible in the background.
True to the theme of power,
which is the conceptual foundation for "Nehaj" ("Levity"), this piece
features extensive use of extremely harsh and noisy electronics and percussion. A long
passage of recitations in Croatian run through the first half of the track, at first
disassociated from the flow of the music, but later spoken faster and faster, and in
rhythmic spurts that complement the over-all forward-rushing quality of the piece.
"Nehaj" is again bookended by the disconcerting screams of sirens, and is the
most dynamic and "structured" track on the album.
The final, and longest piece --
"Futur Egzakni" ("Future Two") -- opens and closes with subtle
passages of humming machine ambiance. Subdued, metallic clanking fades in supported by
soaring tones as of wheels spinning, and other aural signatures of the industrial age. The
treated groans of a herd of cattle (waiting for the rotating blades at the butcher plant?)
become audible, and is succeeded by a tinkling loop as of millions of shards of shattered
glass; armies of camera flashes go off in unison, and the rhythmical workings as of a
giant clock briefly enter and exit this restless catalogue of sounds depicting a sterile,
machinated, compartmentalized modern society.
Mah 2 along with the rest of
SAT Stoicizmo's body of work has been unavailable for more than a decade.
Now, the German label Artware has re-released Mah 2 in both a
limited double-vinyl edition (500 copies) and on CD (likewise in 500 copies). It is the
intention of Artware to make more of SAT Stoicizmo's
material available in the future, and a "magazine" with the band's aesthetic
manifesto along with an in-depth interview has already been published in German -- an
English translation is forthcoming. Mah 2 and the Sat Stoicizmo
publication are available directly from Artware per mail order.
