Family Underground
Family Underground, “Ancient Shadows”, Qbico, 2005
Luego de varios años en el anonimato, el colectivo danés Family Underground parece estar alcanzando un rápido reconocimiento internacional dentro de la emergente escena de la música improvisada. Prueba de ello es este bello disco que tiene impresas en ambas caras sugestivas imágenes creadas por las artistas Sara Czerney y Emma Nielsen, y que contrasta con los modestos CD-R’s que lanzaran previamente a través de sellos pequeños como U-Sound o Whistle Along.
Originalmente denominado F.L.O.W.E.R., Family Underground ha desarrollado una forma de improvisación basada en el drone que propende a generar atmósferas etéreas e ingrávidas en que sutiles guitarras, voces y otros sonidos adquieren un sentido espectral.
En este disco se incluyen dos largas improvisaciones que difieren bastante entre sí. En la primera, la acumulación de sonidos y ecos dan pie a una estática masa de sonidos que parece ser puesta en movimiento a través de la imprevista aparición de voces y suaves percusiones de cuerdas, para cerrar con una improvisación en teclado y guitarra en que las notas sostenidas se alternan con incesantes variaciones de sonidos en una tensión que se resuelve en un emotivo trabajo vocal. En el segundo lado, las marcadas guitarras parecen orientar el desarrollo de un espacio sonoro opresivo y denso que gira permanentemente en torno a sí mismo, en el que la acumulación de ecos y reverberancia progresivamente instalan una muralla de ruido que se desenvuelve de manera autónoma.
Más información: www.webalice.it/qbico1/QBICO RECORDS.htm
Texto José Miguel Salazar Z.
Agosto 2005
Family Underground, ‘Ancient Shadows’, Qbico, 2005
After several years in the anonymity the Danish group Family Underground seems to be reaching a fast international recognition within the emergent scene of improv music. Proof of it is this amazing LP that it has printed in both faces by suggestive images created by the artists Sara Czerney and Emma Nielsen, and that contrasts with the low profile CD-R’s which were released previously through small labels like U-Sound or Whistle Along.
Originally they were named F.L.O.W.E.R. Family Underground have developed a form of improvisation based on drones that allows to create ethereal and soft atmospheres in which subtle guitars, voices and other sounds acquire a spectral feeling.
In this record two long improvisations are included that are very different from each other. In the first one the accumulation of sounds and echoes produce an static mass of sounds in order to set it in movement through the unexpected appearance of voices and smooth percussions of cords to complete this piece with a keyboard and guitar improvisation in which the sustained notes are alternated with unceasing sound variations in a tension that is solved in an emotive vocal work. In the second side it is marked by guitars that seem to focus its development in an oppressive and dense sound space that turns permanently around itself, in which the accumulation of echoes and reverberance progressively installs a wall of noise that develops itself in an independent way.
More info at www.webalice.it/qbico1/QBICO RECORDS.htm
Text José Miguel Salazar Z.
August 2005
